Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Love the premise of this story. Take the most tedious annoyance of every day life and blow it up to Galactic proportions.
Never Cruel...@never_cruel As much as this story has a so-so rep', I think it's a masterpiece. A 'new romantic, early eighties, hurts the eyes' accidental masterpiece, but a masterpiece none the less.
In the year 2116, the luxury space cruiser Empress makes the jump to warp.
Captain Rigg is pleased that they're ahead of schedule...
...while his navigator, Secker, seems easily amused.
The flight computer tells the jump suited passengers they're obout to go into orbit around the planet Azure...
...and the gravity is low so if they leave their seats they'll be as high as Secker.
James VHS Gent ⚡@jamesgent76 It's a Buggles cosplay convention!
Rigg spots a malfunction and it turns out Secker set the wrong co-ordinates.
"What's a few degrees?"
Sure enough... "Oh no!"
As the ship drops out of warp into the wrong orbit, it collides with another ship, the Hecate.
Two crewmen inspect the damage, where the two ships have melded during their materialisation.
Really odd the crewmen making their reports to camera.
The grinning Secker is as much use as a chocolate teapot.
Rigg promises him he'll never work in the West Galaxy again.
Charles Daniels@ukoddball off his tits mate!
M.R.Michael@The_Cybermatt He's one of the most hateable characters in the whole series
Not as keen on the Doctor's dark brown coat; I prefer the season 12 or City of Death looks.
Romana seems to be wearing some sort of maternity dress for prisoners.
Urgh, rubbish K9 voice.
"Of course we should interfere! Always do what you're best at, that's what I say."
Tom's imperious on the Empress.
Tim Gambrell@Mr_Brell Interesting that the Doctor's attitude to involvement here, criticised for years, is what's driven the series since 2005!
The Hecate's pilot, Dymond, comes aboard and the Doctor & Romana follow him to the bridge.
There's a pleasing feel to these corridors, not just your usual BBC white, and it does feel like part of a ship.
Dymond wants Rigg to pay for the damage to his motor but the Doctor reckons it was knock for knock.
He claims to be from "Galactic Insurance and Salvage."
The Doctor and Romana know how to separate the ships.
Its risky but Dymond is willing to give it a go.
Rigg invites Romana and Dymond to wait in the lounge...
...while he checks out the Doctor's credentials. Which are, of course, complete bollocks.
Charles Daniels@ukoddball I hate it when Wikipedia entries are really short like that. Next to useless.
The Doctor sets off with K9 escorted by the wasted Secker. In a split second, Secker comes down, and abandons the Doctor.
The Doctor & K9 follow him to a darkened room...
...where he scrabbles in a cabinet for his stash.
As soon as he's gone the Doctor has K9 analyse the substance.
It's the drug XYP, AKA Vraxoin, which K9 calls "Dangerous, addictive."
The Doctor's seen whole communities, whole planets destroyed by Vraxoin.
Charles Daniels@ukoddball He's seen whole planets destroyed by the stuff, BUT *I* can't find any on a Friday night in the city centre. Hows that work?
Romana has come across fellow passenger, Tryst, an ambitious zoologist.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Hurray! Tryst! S17 is full of should've-been companions. Duggan, the Wolf Weeds and especially Tryst.
He was on his way to Azure to seek sponsorship for his survey expeditions.
Tryst shows off his CET machine - the Continuous Event Transmuter.
Sounds a bit like a miniscope to me.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly I hope Robert Holmes got a cut for use of his 'Carnival of Monsters' device.
Tryst's assistant, Della, explains that the CET houses flora and fauna in a set of crystals within the machine that project them onto a screen.
Tryst takes offence when Romana calls his technology "crude", and claims the machine works perfectly.
Dymond just wants his ship fixed.
The Doctor quizzes Rigg about Secker, and where he might have picked up Vraxoin.
Rigg calls his bluff. "Galactic went out of business 20 years ago."
"I wondered why I hadn't been paid."
"That's not good enough!"
"That's what I thought!"
FEEL THE TOM BAKER/DOUGLAS ADAMS VIBES!
Secker's off into the void...
The Doctor is interested in Tryst's itinerary, and the provenance of the CET.
Turns out Tryst worked on the machine with his mentor, Professor Stein.
"We worked on this idea together before he died, of course. Then we stopped."
Dymond is still itching to get back to his ship.
The Doctor and Rigg leave to inspect the damage...
...leaving Romana to wonder what happened to Tryst's missing crewmember.
"He died!"
"How did he die?"
"He died!"
Glad that's cleared up.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Never not funny.
The Doctor tells Rigg that K9's been through Tryst's itinerary and Vraxoin isn't found on any of the planets he's been to.
The two ships are "rejecting each other, molecularly speaking."
They'll have to cut through to the power unit. The Doctor says "I've got my own equipment."
When Romana has a flick through the CET channels...
...she realizes someone's looking back at her... from Eden.
Tryst's assistant, Della, switches the machine off, telling her Tryst's very precious about his machine.
Eden brings back bad memories for Della; That's where the missing crewmember was lost.
"He was a friend of yours."
"More than that, but it doesn't matter now."
As the Doctor and Rigg prepare to cut through, they hear a scream. It's Secker.
The Doctor and Rigg drag him out, and observe scratch marks on his face.
K9's sensors won't work in the matter interface.
Secker is taken away to the sickbay.
When the Doctor returns to the cabinet to retrieve Secker's stash, someone's got there first...
...someone who guns him down and steals the drugs from his pocket.
Rigg and Della watch on as the medics try to save Secker.
Tryst arrives, and theorizes that Secker was attacked by creatures that live in the interface.
Seems Secker is a gonner.
Romana & K9 come to the Doctor's aid, after he's been "bushwhacked!"
Romana thought Vraxoin was stamped out long ago.
The only known source was destroyed when "they" incinerated an entire planet.
Who's "they"? The Time-Lords?
Rigg isn't very symapthetic to Dymond's plight.
Although it gives Romana the creeps, the Doctor dismisses the CET as an "electric zoo"...
...but sends her to "take care of" it anyway as it's so unstable.
When the Doctor has K9 cut through the bulkhead, Rigg admires how handy he is.
The Doctor goes as far as to concede that K9 "beat me at chess - once!"
Never Cruel...@never_cruel I would probably choose to watch this over Genesis, Deadly Assasin and Caves... (I better stop before I'm lynched).
When she tries to get a closer look at Eden, Romana is stunned by a wibbly white dot.
K9's opened a right tin of Mandrels there...
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly I never give classic Who a hard time for bad SFX. Never. So ... moving on...
K9 drives the creature back.
It's all getting a bit much for Rigg, who finds the whole situation "inexplicable".
"Nothing's inexplicable!"
"Then explain it!"
"It's inexplicable!"
The Doctor tells Rigg that the creature may have ravaged Secker but he was a dead man already thanks to Vraxoin.
The Doctor denies working for "his people."
"But who do you work for?"
"I don't work for anybody. I'm just having fun!"
Never Cruel...@never_cruel Great line. Up there with 'There's no point in being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes.'
Rigg scans the ship for Vraxoin, but nothing shows up.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly With all the borderline panto silliness, it's sometimes overlooked what a cracking good plot this is.
The Doctor decides to concentrate on separating the ships.
Della finds the stunned Romana, and goes to get her a drink.
She's joined by Rigg & as they look away, someone spikes Romana's drink.
However, Rigg takes the drink instead.
At the TARDIS, the Doctor prepares his equipment, lamenting K9's pessimism.
"Here I am trying a little lateral thinking and what do you do? Trample all over it with logic."
Dymond is still moaning about needing to get away.
Tryst urges them to support the Doctor's efforts.
Rigg says the Doctor has "a bee in his bonnet about drug smuggling." Nice to hear what would, by this time, be a particularly antiquated saying surviving to the 22nd century.
Rigg seals his fate by finishing the dosed drink.
Romana fills the Doctor in about the stinging insect that came through the "picture" of Eden.
When Tryst arrives, the Doctor scolds him for using such a "primitive" machine.
"I value your opinion, Doctor."
"I value my life and this machine makes me fear for it."
It seems the problem is that the machine lacks a dimensional osmosis damper. Obviously.
Rigg starts to feel the effects of his spiked drink. "The Empress has eaten your ship!"
The Doctor tells Dymond to put his ship on full power, while Romana feeds the power through from the TARDIS.
K9 vanishes into the dimensional interface.
When the Doctor arrives at the interface, he sees a suspicious someone dressed as a passenger, who bolts...
...so he gives chase down a wobbly staircase as he tries to beat the lift down.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly They spent a fortune on a multi-level set, only for the editing to make it look like it's the same bit being reused. Pity.
The Doctor gives chase through the passenger area, where he's mistaken for one of the crew.
Those poor passengers have been stuck there for an episode and a half. "Maybe that's the entertainment!"
The Doctor wants his stash back, and chases the fugitive into the interface.
Rigg and Romana seem to be talking at cross purposes.
Tryst doesn't think Rigg is in the mood to discuss philosophy...
...but Rigg wants to talk about "my dismissal and eventual execution for dereliction of duty."
He's soon babbling about the Doctor being "the enigmatic almighty Mr. fix it!"
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly "I fahkin' love you ... nah, nah... sherioushly..."
The Doctor promises the mystery man he'll enjoy being talked to.
Tryst seems to be taking quite the interest in whether the Doctor & Romana are narcotics agents.
In the interface the mystery man gets the drop on the Doctor.
As Romana arrives to look for the Doctor, one of the creatures lurches out of the mist...
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly "He probably looked more convincing from the front." Robert Holmes is haunting this story.
...but Romana's saved when the creature is stunned by the mystery man.
The Doctor returns, with a clue: the mystery man has dropped his radiation band, from Tryst's ship.
Della is surprised to find Tryst preparing to use the CET again.
Tryst suggests that their missing crewmate, Stott, was smuggling Vrax.
Why did Stott go missing on Eden for two hours on the day he vanished? Ooh, mysterious.
While the Doctor wonders if there's a stowaway on board, Romana breaks it to him that Rigg's off his face.
Tryst is quick to point the finger at the missing Stott.
K9 is in the midst of the Mandrels.
Uh-oh, it's the space filth. The glittery space filth.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly And then things went weirder. A nuclear detonation of silly/camp/cringe-worthy/amazing...
They're "Waterguard Fisk and Landing Officer Costa of the Azurian Excise." Obviously.
The Doctor says his date of birth is "difficult to remember. Sometime quite soon, I think."
Costa runs a drug detection device over Romana.
Looks a bit like the new sonic screwdriver on a selfie stick.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly It looks like a lot of things, none of which belongs on a kid friendly TV show. Yikes.
Of course, as the Doctor had the Vrax in his pocket earlier, it goes nuts when Costa gives him the once over.
Pulling the oldest trick in the book, the Doctor & Romana vamoose.
Romana dials up Eden as the Doctor knackers the lock with his screwdriver.
The Doctor wants to test a theory, but Romana has reservations.
Hand in hand, they leap into the jungle...
"How do you like Eden?"
"I don't!"
Aw, why not? I'm quite enjoying this.
The Doctor & Romana don't seem to be able to agree on a direction, so exeunt pursued by a Mandrel.
Fisk, Dymond & Tryst make it into the lounge, to find the Doctor & Romana gone.
When Romana asks how he knew they could get into the projection, the Doctor says it's "the same way I knew we could get into the TARDIS."
Romana has never met such idiots as those customs men. Score one for Duggan.
The Doctor is suddenly attacked by the tendrils of a carnivorous plant, and has to bite his way to freedom!
The Doctor & Romana hide from the Mandrel on their trail.
Just when they think they've shaken it, the Mandrel looms over them.
They're saved by the timely arrival of the Doctor's mystery man, none other than the late Stott!
Stott's been stuck in the Eden slice of the CET for 183 days.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly "With only this impregnable penthouse accommodation, a weapon, free wifi and unlimited Coco Pops to sustain me."
He says the hardest part was being able to look out and see Della.
He first realized he could leave the projection after the crash.
Stott wasn't just a member of Tryst's team, he's an undercover agent, a Major in the Space Corps' Intelligence section.
Stott's sure the main supply of Vrax is in the Eden crystal but has yet to locate it.
Stott agrees to lead them back to the Empress' power unit.
They materialize out of the wall.
Wait, back up. Did K9 just "sniff" Stott?
The Doctor fiddles with the power unit to jump start the ship.
K9 says there are 5 Mandrels on the loose but the Doctor says there's no point trying to round them up yet.
Rigg just laughs as the Mandrels attack the passengers.
He tells Costa the Mandrels are "a sort of judgement on us all".
Costa orders all armed crewmembers to rally to the passengers' defence.
Rigg doesn't see what the problem is. "They're only economy class, what's all the fuss about?" Apropos of nothing, Thatcher was in power by this point.
Tom looks quite odd without his coat.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Strange how vulnerable he looks. The Doctor's powers are all in the coat.
Captain Rigg is pleased that they're ahead of schedule...
...while his navigator, Secker, seems easily amused.
The flight computer tells the jump suited passengers they're obout to go into orbit around the planet Azure...
...and the gravity is low so if they leave their seats they'll be as high as Secker.
James VHS Gent ⚡@jamesgent76 It's a Buggles cosplay convention!Rigg spots a malfunction and it turns out Secker set the wrong co-ordinates.
"What's a few degrees?"
Sure enough... "Oh no!"
As the ship drops out of warp into the wrong orbit, it collides with another ship, the Hecate.
Two crewmen inspect the damage, where the two ships have melded during their materialisation.
Really odd the crewmen making their reports to camera.
The grinning Secker is as much use as a chocolate teapot.
Rigg promises him he'll never work in the West Galaxy again.
Charles Daniels@ukoddball off his tits mate!M.R.Michael@The_Cybermatt He's one of the most hateable characters in the whole series
Ha! To be fair we never see the "real" (pre-Vraxoin) Secker, though unlike the effects we later see on Rigg, I'd assume he chose to take it, so yeah.
The TARDIS arrives (finally) right next to the "mish mash".
Not as keen on the Doctor's dark brown coat; I prefer the season 12 or City of Death looks.
Romana seems to be wearing some sort of maternity dress for prisoners.
Urgh, rubbish K9 voice.
"Of course we should interfere! Always do what you're best at, that's what I say."
Tom's imperious on the Empress.
Tim Gambrell@Mr_Brell Interesting that the Doctor's attitude to involvement here, criticised for years, is what's driven the series since 2005!The Hecate's pilot, Dymond, comes aboard and the Doctor & Romana follow him to the bridge.
There's a pleasing feel to these corridors, not just your usual BBC white, and it does feel like part of a ship.
Dymond wants Rigg to pay for the damage to his motor but the Doctor reckons it was knock for knock.
He claims to be from "Galactic Insurance and Salvage."
The Doctor and Romana know how to separate the ships.
Its risky but Dymond is willing to give it a go.
Rigg invites Romana and Dymond to wait in the lounge...
...while he checks out the Doctor's credentials. Which are, of course, complete bollocks.
Charles Daniels@ukoddball I hate it when Wikipedia entries are really short like that. Next to useless.The Doctor sets off with K9 escorted by the wasted Secker. In a split second, Secker comes down, and abandons the Doctor.
The Doctor & K9 follow him to a darkened room...
...where he scrabbles in a cabinet for his stash.
As soon as he's gone the Doctor has K9 analyse the substance.
It's the drug XYP, AKA Vraxoin, which K9 calls "Dangerous, addictive."
The Doctor's seen whole communities, whole planets destroyed by Vraxoin.
Charles Daniels@ukoddball He's seen whole planets destroyed by the stuff, BUT *I* can't find any on a Friday night in the city centre. Hows that work?Romana has come across fellow passenger, Tryst, an ambitious zoologist.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Hurray! Tryst! S17 is full of should've-been companions. Duggan, the Wolf Weeds and especially Tryst.
He was on his way to Azure to seek sponsorship for his survey expeditions.
Tryst shows off his CET machine - the Continuous Event Transmuter.
Sounds a bit like a miniscope to me.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly I hope Robert Holmes got a cut for use of his 'Carnival of Monsters' device.Tryst's assistant, Della, explains that the CET houses flora and fauna in a set of crystals within the machine that project them onto a screen.
Tryst takes offence when Romana calls his technology "crude", and claims the machine works perfectly.
Dymond just wants his ship fixed.
The Doctor quizzes Rigg about Secker, and where he might have picked up Vraxoin.
Rigg calls his bluff. "Galactic went out of business 20 years ago."
"I wondered why I hadn't been paid."
"That's not good enough!"
"That's what I thought!"
FEEL THE TOM BAKER/DOUGLAS ADAMS VIBES!
Secker's off into the void...
The Doctor is interested in Tryst's itinerary, and the provenance of the CET.
Turns out Tryst worked on the machine with his mentor, Professor Stein.
"We worked on this idea together before he died, of course. Then we stopped."
Dymond is still itching to get back to his ship.
The Doctor and Rigg leave to inspect the damage...
...leaving Romana to wonder what happened to Tryst's missing crewmember.
"How did he die?"
"He died!"
Glad that's cleared up.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Never not funny.The Doctor tells Rigg that K9's been through Tryst's itinerary and Vraxoin isn't found on any of the planets he's been to.
The two ships are "rejecting each other, molecularly speaking."
They'll have to cut through to the power unit. The Doctor says "I've got my own equipment."
When Romana has a flick through the CET channels...
...she realizes someone's looking back at her... from Eden.
Tryst's assistant, Della, switches the machine off, telling her Tryst's very precious about his machine.
Eden brings back bad memories for Della; That's where the missing crewmember was lost.
"He was a friend of yours."
"More than that, but it doesn't matter now."
As the Doctor and Rigg prepare to cut through, they hear a scream. It's Secker.
The Doctor and Rigg drag him out, and observe scratch marks on his face.
K9's sensors won't work in the matter interface.
Secker is taken away to the sickbay.
When the Doctor returns to the cabinet to retrieve Secker's stash, someone's got there first...
...someone who guns him down and steals the drugs from his pocket.
Rigg and Della watch on as the medics try to save Secker.
Tryst arrives, and theorizes that Secker was attacked by creatures that live in the interface.
Seems Secker is a gonner.
Romana & K9 come to the Doctor's aid, after he's been "bushwhacked!"
Romana thought Vraxoin was stamped out long ago.
The only known source was destroyed when "they" incinerated an entire planet.
Who's "they"? The Time-Lords?
Rigg isn't very symapthetic to Dymond's plight.
Although it gives Romana the creeps, the Doctor dismisses the CET as an "electric zoo"...
...but sends her to "take care of" it anyway as it's so unstable.
When the Doctor has K9 cut through the bulkhead, Rigg admires how handy he is.
The Doctor goes as far as to concede that K9 "beat me at chess - once!"
Never Cruel...@never_cruel I would probably choose to watch this over Genesis, Deadly Assasin and Caves... (I better stop before I'm lynched).
When she tries to get a closer look at Eden, Romana is stunned by a wibbly white dot.
K9's opened a right tin of Mandrels there...
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly I never give classic Who a hard time for bad SFX. Never. So ... moving on...
K9 drives the creature back.
It's all getting a bit much for Rigg, who finds the whole situation "inexplicable".
"Nothing's inexplicable!"
"Then explain it!"
"It's inexplicable!"
The Doctor tells Rigg that the creature may have ravaged Secker but he was a dead man already thanks to Vraxoin.
The Doctor denies working for "his people."
"But who do you work for?"
"I don't work for anybody. I'm just having fun!"
Never Cruel...@never_cruel Great line. Up there with 'There's no point in being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes.'Rigg scans the ship for Vraxoin, but nothing shows up.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly With all the borderline panto silliness, it's sometimes overlooked what a cracking good plot this is.
The Doctor decides to concentrate on separating the ships.
Della finds the stunned Romana, and goes to get her a drink.
She's joined by Rigg & as they look away, someone spikes Romana's drink.
However, Rigg takes the drink instead.
At the TARDIS, the Doctor prepares his equipment, lamenting K9's pessimism.
"Here I am trying a little lateral thinking and what do you do? Trample all over it with logic."
Dymond is still moaning about needing to get away.
Tryst urges them to support the Doctor's efforts.
Rigg says the Doctor has "a bee in his bonnet about drug smuggling." Nice to hear what would, by this time, be a particularly antiquated saying surviving to the 22nd century.
Rigg seals his fate by finishing the dosed drink.
Romana fills the Doctor in about the stinging insect that came through the "picture" of Eden.
When Tryst arrives, the Doctor scolds him for using such a "primitive" machine.
"I value your opinion, Doctor."
"I value my life and this machine makes me fear for it."
It seems the problem is that the machine lacks a dimensional osmosis damper. Obviously.
Rigg starts to feel the effects of his spiked drink. "The Empress has eaten your ship!"
The Doctor tells Dymond to put his ship on full power, while Romana feeds the power through from the TARDIS.
K9 vanishes into the dimensional interface.
When the Doctor arrives at the interface, he sees a suspicious someone dressed as a passenger, who bolts...
...so he gives chase down a wobbly staircase as he tries to beat the lift down.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly They spent a fortune on a multi-level set, only for the editing to make it look like it's the same bit being reused. Pity.
The Doctor gives chase through the passenger area, where he's mistaken for one of the crew.
Those poor passengers have been stuck there for an episode and a half. "Maybe that's the entertainment!"
The Doctor wants his stash back, and chases the fugitive into the interface.
Rigg and Romana seem to be talking at cross purposes.
Tryst doesn't think Rigg is in the mood to discuss philosophy...
...but Rigg wants to talk about "my dismissal and eventual execution for dereliction of duty."
He's soon babbling about the Doctor being "the enigmatic almighty Mr. fix it!"
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly "I fahkin' love you ... nah, nah... sherioushly..."
The Doctor promises the mystery man he'll enjoy being talked to.
Tryst seems to be taking quite the interest in whether the Doctor & Romana are narcotics agents.
In the interface the mystery man gets the drop on the Doctor.
As Romana arrives to look for the Doctor, one of the creatures lurches out of the mist...
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly "He probably looked more convincing from the front." Robert Holmes is haunting this story....but Romana's saved when the creature is stunned by the mystery man.
The Doctor returns, with a clue: the mystery man has dropped his radiation band, from Tryst's ship.
Della is surprised to find Tryst preparing to use the CET again.
Tryst suggests that their missing crewmate, Stott, was smuggling Vrax.
Why did Stott go missing on Eden for two hours on the day he vanished? Ooh, mysterious.
While the Doctor wonders if there's a stowaway on board, Romana breaks it to him that Rigg's off his face.
Tryst is quick to point the finger at the missing Stott.
K9 is in the midst of the Mandrels.
Uh-oh, it's the space filth. The glittery space filth.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly And then things went weirder. A nuclear detonation of silly/camp/cringe-worthy/amazing...
They're "Waterguard Fisk and Landing Officer Costa of the Azurian Excise." Obviously.
The Doctor says his date of birth is "difficult to remember. Sometime quite soon, I think."
Costa runs a drug detection device over Romana.
Looks a bit like the new sonic screwdriver on a selfie stick.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly It looks like a lot of things, none of which belongs on a kid friendly TV show. Yikes.Of course, as the Doctor had the Vrax in his pocket earlier, it goes nuts when Costa gives him the once over.
Pulling the oldest trick in the book, the Doctor & Romana vamoose.
Romana dials up Eden as the Doctor knackers the lock with his screwdriver.
The Doctor wants to test a theory, but Romana has reservations.
Hand in hand, they leap into the jungle...
"How do you like Eden?"
"I don't!"
Aw, why not? I'm quite enjoying this.
The Doctor & Romana don't seem to be able to agree on a direction, so exeunt pursued by a Mandrel.
Fisk, Dymond & Tryst make it into the lounge, to find the Doctor & Romana gone.
When Romana asks how he knew they could get into the projection, the Doctor says it's "the same way I knew we could get into the TARDIS."
Romana has never met such idiots as those customs men. Score one for Duggan.
The Doctor is suddenly attacked by the tendrils of a carnivorous plant, and has to bite his way to freedom!
The Doctor & Romana hide from the Mandrel on their trail.
Just when they think they've shaken it, the Mandrel looms over them.
They're saved by the timely arrival of the Doctor's mystery man, none other than the late Stott!
Stott's been stuck in the Eden slice of the CET for 183 days.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly "With only this impregnable penthouse accommodation, a weapon, free wifi and unlimited Coco Pops to sustain me."
He says the hardest part was being able to look out and see Della.
He first realized he could leave the projection after the crash.
Stott wasn't just a member of Tryst's team, he's an undercover agent, a Major in the Space Corps' Intelligence section.
Although Stott suspects Secker may have been involved in the smuggling but says Tryst's a fool who suspects nothing.
Stott's sure the main supply of Vrax is in the Eden crystal but has yet to locate it.
Stott agrees to lead them back to the Empress' power unit.
They materialize out of the wall.
Wait, back up. Did K9 just "sniff" Stott?
The Doctor fiddles with the power unit to jump start the ship.
K9 says there are 5 Mandrels on the loose but the Doctor says there's no point trying to round them up yet.
Rigg just laughs as the Mandrels attack the passengers.
He tells Costa the Mandrels are "a sort of judgement on us all".
Costa orders all armed crewmembers to rally to the passengers' defence.
Rigg doesn't see what the problem is. "They're only economy class, what's all the fuss about?" Apropos of nothing, Thatcher was in power by this point.
Tom looks quite odd without his coat.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Strange how vulnerable he looks. The Doctor's powers are all in the coat.
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Whereas in Planet of Fire, the Doctor looks simply beautiful without his coatYou get both sides of the coin in the 2 Doctors. Colin without coat = good. Pat without = Bad.
The Doctor is too busy working on the power unit to notice a Mandrel has sneaked up on him.
Aw, the Mandrel wants a cuddle.
K9 to the rescue!
While the Mandrel pines for the fjords, Romana heads off to throw the switch aboard the TARDIS.
Fisk loses his patience with Rigg and arrests him, which Rigg thinks is "really nice."
Next Fisk's gunning for the Mandrels, then the Doctor.
The crewman's reluctant to shoot the Doctor, even in the face of Fisk's "What else do you do with criminals?"
The Doctor sends Stott & Romana back to Eden & K9 to the demat machine.
The Doctor gives Stott till 20:25, then he's off to watch an episode of Series 8.
Fisk wants the ship searched from top to bottom, and calls Romana the Doctor's "lady companion"! Steady on!
Ey up, Dymond & Tryst seem awfully pally all of a sudden.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Romance in the air. They probably met via an app and arranged the crash to hook up.Stott & Romana duck another Mandrel to make their escape.
The Mandrel's finished pining for the Fjords...
K9 enters the interface.
Romana leaves Stott to guide the Doctor back from the power unit.
The Doctor's got Mandrel trouble. His pursuer smashes the timer, and is electrocuted.
So Vraxoin is electrocuted Mandrels! On Eden, this show is their "Soylent Green".
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Brilliant twist.
Fisk eyes promotion for fitting up the Doctor & Romana but Costa seems to be having doubts.
K9's ready on time, will the Doctor be?
Rigg starts to come down at the most inopportune moment, making a nuisance of himself just when Romana needs to get at the controls.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Some real gear crunching changes of pace/tone here. Madcap space panto one second, junkie jonesing for a fix the next.
Fisk arrives and shoots Rigg down, but is soon gunning for Romana too.
"I didn't invent the rules, I just enforce them." What an utter jobsworth.
The Doctor gives K9 the signal...
...and Romana hits the button.
The Doctor runs into the interface - and disappears! Probably to the BBC bar, knowing Tom.
The ships are separated. Hurrah!
Romana takes her chance to kick away Fisk's gun and make her escape.
Dymond claims he was only on his ship to get guns to use against the Mandrels.
"Yeah, right."
Dymond requests permission to get off, but Fisk wants him as a witness, and orders him back on board the Empress.
K9's sensors confirm that the Doctor is no longer aboard the Empress.
Della hasn't seen him, and warns Romana that the space filth have given orders for her & the Doctor to be shot.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly There should have been a spin-off titled "The Space Filth".When Della recalls Stott's anxious behaviour on Eden, Romana tells her that Stott's still alive.
The Doctor is, of course, aboard the Hecate.
There he sees Dymond calculating the money to be made from the "Eden Project".
"The profits on human suffering." This is far from being the "silly season" of repute.
TonyCross@Lokster71 Season 17 is far better (and smarter) than people give it credit for.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly It's a very silly season. It's also very clever, dark, imaginative, funny, dramatic but few saw past the camp.
When Dymond puts the air supply through his helmet, the Doctor has to self-induce a coma. Just like old times.
Tryst squeals to the space filth that the Doctor went inside the CET...
...and tries to fit him up for smuggling the Vrax.
Fisk just called Tryst "Fisk". Some tactic to confuse him? His accent's mixed up, for sure.
James Cooray Smith@thejimsmith Lewis Fiander is very effective in other stuff, like Lady Killers (made immediately afterwards). I have two suspicions about his (very enjoyable) turn here. 1) He is who Douglas Adams meant when he talked years later about "doing silly voices" in Who & 2) that LF is doing an impersonation of the retired French SS officer from Le Chagrin et la Pitié who looks & sounds very like him. There's some logic to that. That guy is a flamboyant, self-justifying hypocritical sh** too.
James Cooray Smith@thejimsmith I mean there's some Dr Strangelove there too, obviously. But I think it's missing link.
As the Hecate docks, K9 detects the Doctor's arrival.
Romana & Della watch as Dymond returns, and are then reunited with the Doctor.
They find themselves at gunpoint, and though Della is captured, K9's nose laser allows the Doctor & Romana to escape.
Having discovered how Dymond & Tryst are smuggling the Vrax, the Doctor now needs to catch them at it.
Stott arrives, pursued by a Mandrel.
K9 makes short work of is Mandrel attacker...
...and the Doctor explains Tryst & Dymond's scheme.
When her captor is attacked by a Mandrel, Della is able to escape as far as the bridge...
...but runs straight into Tryst.
Tryst is pleased to hear the Doctor intends to put the Mandrels back in the CET machine.
Just as Fisk thinks he has his man, Stott bounds in to clear the Doctor's name.
Della confronts Tryst, and though he trie sto deny everything at first...
...he's soon making excuses. "It started just as a little thing, just to help me over a slight financial difficulty."
Della makes her escape when another Mandrel lurches in.
Having seen off the Mandrel...
...Tryst knackers the Empress' navigation controls...
...while Dymond stuns Della when she tries to help a wounded crewman.
When Romana goes to her aid, she needs a last minute intervention from K9 to stop the apporaching Mandrel.
Fisk cancels his order to shoot the Doctor and puts the smugglers firmly in his sights instead.
Fisk & Stott think all is lost, but the Doctor points out that they won't leave without the Eden crystal.
Stott and the remaining crewmen herd the Mandrels back to the projector.
The smugglers start to get away...
As their guns start to lose power, the Doctor arrives to lead them away with K9's dog whistle, like a crazed pied piper.
"I'm going inside now and I amy be rather a long time..." Has the moment been prepared for?
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Imagine if this was the regeneration story. I'd prefer it, I think.
Inside the Eden projection, the Doctor tries to give the Mandrels the runaround, but is soon grabbed in the bush.
"Oh, my fingers, my arms, my legs, my everything!" Okay, that one's silly, but it's harmless fun.
Or armless (I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...)
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly This is what they mean by 'The Tom Baker Show' don't they? Well, give me 10 years of that over Saward's grisly misery. I think the genuine panic as he legs it out of there works to redeem the gag. He was showing off, but then turned serious.
He leaps out, coat in tatters, and has Romana shut the machine off.
Romana has 2 mins 58 secs to rebuild the machine. "Well, I'll need a screwdriver."
Tryst & Dymond prepare to make their transfer.
Jump leads on K9? You've got to be kidding!
The Doctor has K9 reverse the setting...
The Hecate will soon be out of range.
Fisk thinks the Doctor has failed.
Of course he hasn't! He's linked the machine to the laser aboard the Hecate so they can just step inside the projection and capture the smugglers.
Tryst tries one last appeal to the Doctor. "You understand all this, you're a scientist."
"Go away."
"What?"
"Go away."
Brrrr, Tom at his coldest.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Another great moment. Again, this season gets the balance of elements right. Next year, it's monotone.
In script terms possibly, but I actually find Season 17 largely beige albeit damn good fun, while Season 18 is more colourful and glitzy but obviously more po-faced in general - but both are, I think, quite uniform in tone across their respective runs. If anything, that 18 arguably goes from a shiny optimism in The Leisure Hive to the funereal in Logopolis shows more variety than 17's start to finish frolicking. But I actually love both approaches side by side, one couldn't be as good as it is without the contrast of the other. I know a lot of people are vehemently pro one and anti the other, but I just enjoy them both on their own terms really.
Della is glad the Nightmare's over.
The Doctor & Romana prepare to return the inhabitants of Tryst's zoo to their natural habitats.
Romana can only think of one animal who'd be comfortably at home in an electric zoo.
I think she's talking about us, folks.
Okay, NOW the Nightmare is over.
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Tons better than I remember it. The space police let it down though, who both seem to think they're in a space sitcom. But I proper enjoyed it.
Yeah, it's not a story I cared for much before but it's cleverer than it cares to appear. Agree on the space police - far sillier than Tryst's accent!
Romana & Della watch as Dymond returns, and are then reunited with the Doctor.
They find themselves at gunpoint, and though Della is captured, K9's nose laser allows the Doctor & Romana to escape.
Having discovered how Dymond & Tryst are smuggling the Vrax, the Doctor now needs to catch them at it.
Stott arrives, pursued by a Mandrel.
K9 makes short work of is Mandrel attacker...
...and the Doctor explains Tryst & Dymond's scheme.
When her captor is attacked by a Mandrel, Della is able to escape as far as the bridge...
...but runs straight into Tryst.
Tryst is pleased to hear the Doctor intends to put the Mandrels back in the CET machine.
Just as Fisk thinks he has his man, Stott bounds in to clear the Doctor's name.
Della confronts Tryst, and though he trie sto deny everything at first...
...he's soon making excuses. "It started just as a little thing, just to help me over a slight financial difficulty."
Tryst tries to blame the dead for their addictions, but can't excuse what they did to Rigg.
Della makes her escape when another Mandrel lurches in.
Having seen off the Mandrel...
...Tryst knackers the Empress' navigation controls...
...while Dymond stuns Della when she tries to help a wounded crewman.
When Romana goes to her aid, she needs a last minute intervention from K9 to stop the apporaching Mandrel.
Fisk cancels his order to shoot the Doctor and puts the smugglers firmly in his sights instead.
Fisk & Stott think all is lost, but the Doctor points out that they won't leave without the Eden crystal.
Stott and the remaining crewmen herd the Mandrels back to the projector.
The smugglers start to get away...
As their guns start to lose power, the Doctor arrives to lead them away with K9's dog whistle, like a crazed pied piper.
"I'm going inside now and I amy be rather a long time..." Has the moment been prepared for?
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Imagine if this was the regeneration story. I'd prefer it, I think.
Inside the Eden projection, the Doctor tries to give the Mandrels the runaround, but is soon grabbed in the bush.
"Oh, my fingers, my arms, my legs, my everything!" Okay, that one's silly, but it's harmless fun.
Or armless (I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...)
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly This is what they mean by 'The Tom Baker Show' don't they? Well, give me 10 years of that over Saward's grisly misery. I think the genuine panic as he legs it out of there works to redeem the gag. He was showing off, but then turned serious.
He leaps out, coat in tatters, and has Romana shut the machine off.
Romana has 2 mins 58 secs to rebuild the machine. "Well, I'll need a screwdriver."
Tryst & Dymond prepare to make their transfer.
Jump leads on K9? You've got to be kidding!
The Doctor has K9 reverse the setting...
The Hecate will soon be out of range.
Fisk thinks the Doctor has failed.
Of course he hasn't! He's linked the machine to the laser aboard the Hecate so they can just step inside the projection and capture the smugglers.
Tryst tries one last appeal to the Doctor. "You understand all this, you're a scientist."
"Go away."
Brrrr, Tom at his coldest.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Another great moment. Again, this season gets the balance of elements right. Next year, it's monotone.In script terms possibly, but I actually find Season 17 largely beige albeit damn good fun, while Season 18 is more colourful and glitzy but obviously more po-faced in general - but both are, I think, quite uniform in tone across their respective runs. If anything, that 18 arguably goes from a shiny optimism in The Leisure Hive to the funereal in Logopolis shows more variety than 17's start to finish frolicking. But I actually love both approaches side by side, one couldn't be as good as it is without the contrast of the other. I know a lot of people are vehemently pro one and anti the other, but I just enjoy them both on their own terms really.
Della is glad the Nightmare's over.
The Doctor & Romana prepare to return the inhabitants of Tryst's zoo to their natural habitats.
Romana can only think of one animal who'd be comfortably at home in an electric zoo.
I think she's talking about us, folks.
Okay, NOW the Nightmare is over.
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland Tons better than I remember it. The space police let it down though, who both seem to think they're in a space sitcom. But I proper enjoyed it.Yeah, it's not a story I cared for much before but it's cleverer than it cares to appear. Agree on the space police - far sillier than Tryst's accent!
John Mark Frankland@JMFrankland POLICE STRIPOGRAMS FROM SPACE.
TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Delta and the Bannermen
This story was weirdly missed by me on all of the runs of Doctor Who that my local PBS stations had. Possibly after Doctor Who was canceled, i caught sight of this episode in some screen grab or magazine and i was shocked that I'd missed a Tom Baker story. When i finally saw it, possibly only a decade ago, it felt more modern to me than I expected.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that really stood out for me was the model-building. The two ships, Hecate and Empress, were some of the nicest sci-fi ships to come out of Britain! Glad to see well-detailed stills of these two; now, maybe, I can work on replicas of them.
ReplyDeletePretty sure those exact same space cop outfits got recycled for the BBC version of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy just two years later.
ReplyDelete"It isn't easy being a cop."