Doctor Who: Series 13, Episodes 13-16 – “The Android Invasion” (1975)

An entertaining little yarn. I’m always a fan of doppelganger episodes of shows, and sci-fi series have so many reasonable excuses to use them. In fact, when you think about it, it’s a little surprising how seldomly it comes up on classic Who; new Who does a lot more of this, but considering its 26-year catalog, you’d think the classic series would have way more than it does. A parallel world here, a Zygon duplicate there, and, as here, the odd android replica, and that’s pretty much it!

Sarah Jane is convinced that she and the Fourth Doctor have landed on Earth, but the Doctor isn’t so convinced. As they move through a creepy, nigh-deserted village with unnatural-seeming denizens, these suspicions grow stronger and stronger. Nothing, it turns out, is as it seems, and with baddies capable of building android replicas of whoever they’d like, not even the Doctor or Sarah Jane are always as they seem!

Naturally, there’s some good fun to be had with androids here. There’s the ole “android makes a tiny slip-up that the other person instantly recognizes because they know you so well” routine, the human (or Time Lord) vs. their android grudge match, and of course, the fun of watching the actors play something not-quite their characters. Everyone is suitably creepy playing the implacable androids, but special mention has to be given to Ian Marter. When he’s playing an android (in a situation where the jig is up and he doesn’t have to pretend to be Harry,) he’s absolutely nothing like Harry. I don’t know that I quite appreciated him enough as an actor until I saw him in this serial.

What else is there to report? This is a great story for Doctor-companion interactions. There’s the aforementioned you-know-me-so-well brand of android-spotting, and in the early scenes, they bounce ideas off each other quite nicely. They also get in some top-shelf bickering, my favorite being when Sarah Jane points out the potentially fatal flaw in the Doctor’s strategy and, without a beat, he tsks at the holes in their plan. Ha! Even so, they spend a fair amount of the story apart, giving all the more reason for one or the other to be an android whenever they meet up again.

As far as the plot goes, I’m also interested in the dynamic between Crayford and the Kraals. Their evil scheme, while almost ridiculously detailed, gets a definite A for effort, and I like the particular set-up for how they wind up working with Crayford in the first place.

Doctor Who: Series 11, Episodes 1-4 – “The Time Warrior” (1973)

*Premise spoilers*

The start of the Third Doctor’s final season and the first story to feature Sarah Jane, not to mention the debut of one of the series’ most well-known aliens. All that is enough to make it stand out, but it also has a really fun story to boot. All in all, a definite win!

The Brigadier calls in the Third Doctor to investigate the disappearance of several prominent scientists. Of course, the Doctor is on the case, along with the ambitious young journalist Sarah Jane. When Sarah Jane pokes her nose in as the Doctor is following a very particular lead, both end up in the Middle Ages, where a stranded Sontaran warrior named Linx has been abducting people out of time in order to find a way back home.

So much to love here. Despite the presence of only one Sontaran in the whole story, our favorite murderous potato-heads already demonstrate a lot of their chief characteristics. This story introduces the basics of the warmongering clone race, including their baton gun things, their use of hypnotic slaves, their probic vent, and their confusion at a species having two genders. Linx himself is a good baddie, both cunning and callous, and pairing him up with the brutish Irongron is a fine narrative move.

An alien from an advanced species stuck in the past and stealing scientists from the future is a great premise that offers up plenty of possibilities in the story. I like how Linx wins over Irongron and his rabble with the promise of superior weapons, and even if it’s kind of crazy that he can manage time-displacement technology on his own but needs scientists from the ‘70s to get his spaceship working, I like that he’s marooned and is forced to rely on humans to get off Earth—the fact that he has so much contempt for us as a species just makes it better.

Sarah Jane is a lot of fun in her first showing. I’m a fan of stowaway-companion beginnings, intentional or otherwise, and here, I especially like that Sarah Jane spends the first part of her time in the Middle Ages separated from the Doctor, without any idea of where or when she is. Given the limited information she has, she makes a pretty reasonable conjecture about her whereabouts, and she later has an amusing undercover operation in which she tries to introduce feminism to a kitchen wench.

The Doctor’s not too shabby either. It’s a little annoying that the show felt the need to make him a little more overtly paternalistic to contrast with Sarah Jane’s feminism (after Three’s regeneration into Four, Harry had to be the one to take that hit,) but it only comes up sparingly, and the rest of the time, he’s up to his usual Doctory stuff. In this story, he’s particularly on fire with the clever plans—I love his scheme to bolster Edward’s forces, and he’s great fun impersonating a robot suit of armor.

Doctor Who: Series 12, Episodes 5-8 – “The Ark in Space” (1975)

A post-regeneration episode is obviously our introduction to a new Doctor, but it’s often packed enough with big-picture stuff—the companions dealing with the change, possible regeneration-crisis issues, settling on a new outfit (I kind of love that that’s become such an essential part of any post-regeneration episode)—that it’s not always the best indication of who the new Doctor really is.  Often, a Doctor’s second adventure gives us a better, more settled look at who they are, and that’s definitely a factor in this entertaining space yarn.

The Fourth Doctor brings Sarah Jane and Harry (on his first TARDIS trip) to a seemingly deserted space station far in humanity’s future.  They soon realize that the space station’s inhabitants aren’t dead or missing, but frozen in stasis—they’re on an enormous ark filled with humans waiting to find a new home.  However, while they’ve been sleeping, something else has infiltrated their space station.  The Doctor and co. revive some of the crew to deal with the alien threat.

Pretty decent story.  The Wirrn have a lot of hallmarks reminiscent of other Who aliens, such as hive minds and a penchant for infecting and taking over human bodies, but even though the devices are familiar, they’re depicted well and feel like a palpable threat.  There are some good one-shot characters as well; I especially like medtech Vira and commander Noah.

Harry makes a mixed showing his first time out, which feels appropriate, since he really has no clue what’s he’s in for.  He’s totally bewildered and wrong-footed, and he makes a couple of well-intentioned screw-ups, but he makes up for them by putting his medical training to good use and learning pretty quickly on his feet.

In general, Sarah Jane doesn’t fare quite as well here.  She’s imperiled twice in relatively short succession (although, in her defense, the damseling is directly related to Harry’s bungles in both cases.)  I get that having to be rescued from danger and/or getting captured by the bad guys is a big part of the companion’s job description, but there are times when you have a multi-companion TARDIS crew and it feels like the woman is disproportionately in need of saving, or that there’s a different tenure to the female companion’s endangerment—I’ve gotten this vibe at different times, most prominently with Eleven, Amy, and Rory.  But, just as Harry starts to turn it around, Sarah Jane is used more effectively later in the story.  The scene of her threading the cable through the ventilation shafts is a classic—brave, but scared, too, and I love the Doctor distracting her from her fear by getting her mad.

Like I said, this serial gives us our first settled look at Four, and already, it’s evident why he’s so beloved.  I adore Four—he’s such an interesting mix of kooky, animated, detached, and impatient, drawing you in with that manic grin and then stunning you with those occasional reminders of how alien he really is.  I like that he can get so annoyed at or thrilled with Harry with equal measure, and the aforementioned scene with Sarah Jane is a highlight of the story.  I also really enjoy his interactions with the chief Wirrn, and just the fact that he’s someone who totally gets that this gigantic bug alien is an intelligent creature he can attempt to reason with.