"Four To Doomsday" EDWE 2

(EDWE 2 = Every Doctor Who Episode, Blog 2)
Written by Terrence Dudley
Starring Peter Davison and Others

Three space frogs and 3 billion others. No complex story lines and not one mention of a CVE or Entropy. Doctor Who was back. The story sees the Doctor and his 'crowded TARDIS' heading for Heathrow, and the Doctor lands somewhere that "isn't even the quarantine area". He's landed on a giant spaceship visiting Earth to repopulate it. Monarch (the big frog in charge) has burnt up his planet so they need a new planet to live on. Oh and the rest of the crew are robots.

Right, enough of that, what do I think of it? Truth be told, Peter Davison IS my favourite Doctor, and I'll explain why popular Tom Baker isn't in a future vlog. This was filmed before Castrovalva and was to help Peter find his feet. He most certainly did. Though the story isn't up to much, it's creepy (where Enlightenment and Persuasion transform) funny (where Adric says "he knows I'm no good with my hands" and of course there's the Persuasion and Englightenment jokes) and it's Doctor Who. Four To Doomsday IS my definition of a Doctor Who episode. However, it isn't highly rated.

It's not a spectacular episode, and it involves a lot of the sitting around talking scenes, but these are vital. The introduction of Bigon works well, and he turns into a bit of a fourth companion, but the companion parts are still split pretty much equally. Nyssa maybe has less of a role, with a few conversations and getting hypnotised, but Tegan gets the trying to escape role, so maybe even she isn't that involved. Adric gets the most out of this story, siding with Monarch.

The "recreationals" were a brilliant idea, and some hillarious scenes between the Doctor and companions were set around these. The sets are quite astonishing, and you feel like the spaceship is a vast one you have to explore. It's likely to be a boring episode to people who don't like Davison's Doctor, or don't like the three companions, but it is the TARDIS landing, the Doctor with his friends, and a spaceship. And of course, defeating evil. THAT IS DOCTOR WHO!
  And plus we get the Doctors fantastic space walk, and when I saw a picture of that for the first time, I was impressed. Seeing the video, I felt the same.

Mistakes: The tacky space helmets.
Good things: It is Doctor Who and has lost the complex series arcs of season 18.

NEXT TIME
I review either a modern episode or a 4th Doctor episode

James