Doctor Who: Series 21, Episodes 13-16 – “Planet of Fire” (1984)

Series 21 is kind of hit-or-miss for me, but I think this is one of the better serials. It’s certainly packed—a companion’s backstory, a new companion introduction, the Master getting up to shenanigans, a rare Kamelion appearance, etc.—and while I don’t know that all of it necessarily works, I enjoy it.

Investigating an alien signal on Lanzarote, the Fifth Doctor and Turlough discover a piece of technology from Turlough’s home planet of Trion. As they trace the signal to the volcanic planet Sarn and both of them run into some unwelcome peers, they unwittingly bring along an American student named Peri.

Right from his introduction, Turlough’s situation was interesting to me: an alien already living on Earth at the time he meets the Doctor. From there, things quickly pivot to the Black Guardian arc and we don’t really follow up on where Turlough comes from, so it’s good to return to his story here. I appreciate filling in some of these gaps, as well as meeting other Trions and seeing how Turlough interacts with them.

I like a good ol’ classic Who companion stowaway/accidental absconding. And Peri is thrown even more into the deep end than someone like Zoe or Sarah Jane—she’s unconscious when Turlough brings her aboard after he rescues her from drowning, so when she wakes up in the TARDIS, she doesn’t know about the whole “bigger on the inside” thing. Not to mention, once they get to Sarn, she’s separated from both the Doctor and Turlough for much of the episode.

Instead, she’s dealing with Kamelion, the most unfortunate robot in the Whoniverse. Barely featured on the show because of how tricky he was to operate, Kamelion makes his second and final appearance on the show after a lengthy hiatus. Just like “The King’s Demons,” Kamelion’s incredibly prone to psychic tampering, and with the Master around, that spells trouble. So Peri’s introduction to TARDIS life involves being terrorized by a possessed robot who’s being controlled by a renegade Time Lord in quite the entertaining predicament. Not an ideal situation for her first adventure.

And look: I complain about overuse sometimes and there can be diminishing returns on occasion, but for the most part, I usually enjoy a good Doctor-Master standoff. This episode is no exception! Even if Three and the Delgado Master are my favorite classic Who combo, Five and the Ainley Master are pretty great together too, and this is a good story for them.