Doctor Who: Series 6, Episodes 1-5 – “The Dominators” (1968)

Honestly, I love pretty much the whole of series 6. Two, Jamie, and Zoe are one of my favorite TARDIS teams, and the dynamic between them is always great. Even if this serial is slow-moving at times, I enjoy it a lot.

A relaxing holiday never turns out as planned where the TARDIS is concerned, and the Second Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are dropped into quite the situation on the planet Dulkis. The Dominators have landed there too, on a radioactive island they intend to harness for their own purposes. Given their name, they’re inclined to do this in the most destructive way possible, with no regard for the population of the planet.

This has all the hallmarks of a good Two era serial. Entertaining oneshot characters? Check, particularly in the form of a dodgy tour guide and a university professor who’s brought a couple students to study the decay of the island’s radiation. Creative but laughably cheap baddies that are probably made of cardboard and tin foil? Check, with the worker robots the Dominators call Quarks. Padding out the five-episode story by having various subsets of our heroes take turns getting captured by the bad guys? Check, check, and check! It’s fun, there’s a museum dedicated to “ancient warfare” (i.e. laser weapons) on a now-peaceful planet, and there’s a giant drill burrowing to the planet’s core. What’s not to like?

While I like the overall plot, my favorite part is the interactions between the Doctor and his companions. This is often true when it comes to both classic and new Who—even the most interesting stories and scariest aliens usually comes second to good Doctor/companion stuff. And when you have Two, Jamie, and Zoe, you really can’t go wrong! They’re such a fun, chaotic trio who are endlessly entertaining.

In this story, a lot of that entertainment comes from the revolving door of our heroes getting captured by the Dominators and either escaping or being rescued by the others. I especially like the Dominators testing the Doctor and Jamie to assess their physical and mental abilities (and the Doctor trying to game said testing!) We also have Zoe caught in a grueling forced labor situation with some of the Dulcians, and Jamie getting trapped but moving heaven and earth to make it back to the Doctor and Zoe. Ah, bless them!