What? That can't have been all the Sarah Jane stories. Impossible! Do you think maybe we could go back and watch them all again, just to be sure?
Sarah -
We can start planning our second marathon now!
Harry -
Alright, well here we have "The Deadly Assassin", a story that I'd certainly mark down in the "oddities" column. This story is so unlike what we've been watching to this point. It's downright odd is what it is.
Sarah -
It's definitely odd, but its very oddness is what makes it interesting. This is the only non-companion story of the classic era. Apparently, Tom was convinced he could go it alone. Hinchcliffe gave him the one-off and then it was back to all companions all the time!
Having gotten the call from Gallifrey, the Doctor finds himself in the middle of a presidential assassination and coup -- and he's the primary suspect!
Harry -
Philip Hinchcliffe gave a nod to The Manchurian Candidate for this story. The first half of the story paints a political thriller right out of Richard Condon's novel.
Sarah -
I say more than a nod, more like a full body slam!
This is our first trip to Gallifrey and the first time the Doctor has been back since he stole the TARDIS and hit the road, as it were.
Harry -
That's another thing that makes this story stand out as it does in the middle of Season 14. It's a massive dump of Whoniverse continuity. Bob Holmes bombards us with Guards, Castellans, Chancellors and Cardinals, with names that will ring down through other stories. The Panopticon, the Sash of Rassilon, the Matrix, the Eye of Harmony - they are all here for the first time, thrown at us amid a colourful swirl of ceremonial robes.
Sarah -
It's a lot to take in all at once. We've had glimpses of the Time Lords, but this is the most we've learned about their society so far. Some fans contend that spending too much time on Gallifrey unnecessarily domesticated the Time Lords. Where do you come down on this debate?
Harry -
These Time Lords are very different from the stern, godlike characters the Doctor encountered at the end of "The War Games". Here, Bob Holmes gives us an extended look inside the corridors of Gallifreyan power, and it's disappointing for its familiarity.
We see a bunch of fusty old men gossiping amongst themselves, while the ambitious among them play power games. We see Runcible the TV reporter acting like, well, a TV reporter. We see the Chancellery Guards outwitted by the Doctor with alarming ease. Perhaps the familiarity of it all was meant to shock us - to make us realize that unlimited time and power make everyone the same. These are the most powerful people in the universe? Maybe they were, once, but what we see here is an almost stagnant, male-dominated society that mirrors our own, not one that we would dream about or aspire to.
For me, Gallifrey was more magical when it was unknown. This story changes that.
Whew, sorry for the massive dump of criticism. Let's talk about the insane Matrix episode!
Sarah -
What the story does do is make it very clear why the Doctor got the hell out of there!
Oh, the Matrix! That's a trip, eh?
The Doctor battles the Master by proxy in some of the most shocking scenes in the series' history.
Harry -
You have to credit Hinchcliffe & Co. for creating the virtual reality Matrix that would get its own "homage" treatment in a series of films a couple of decades later.
Sarah -
In the bonus feature, Hinchcliffe was quite proud that they had done it first!
Harry -
In real time, the Doctor's mind is plugged into the Matrix for only about five minutes, but what a mad battle he had.
It starts with a series of begoggled characters attacking the Doctor. Evil train conductors, evil Samurai, evil surgeon, evil clown, even a crocodile. The Doctor fends off the many attacks, and is pursued throughout by another mind bent on destroying him.
Sarah -
Can I just say that the railroad scenes were particularly horrifying for me? That scene where the narrow-gage engine is speeding towards the Doctor is the stuff of nightmares!
Harry -
I wonder where part three was filmed. It was an interesting combination of chalky white quarry and swampy woods.
The most shocking scene of them all was probably the part three cliffhanger, where the Doctor is pushed underwater by the now-exposed Chancellor Goth. Mary Whitehouse herself was interviewed for the DVD featurette, cringing at the horror of that scene. In a separate interview, Hinchcliffe shrugged it off as horrific but not too horrific in his opinion. The reality falls somewhere in between, wouldn't you say?
Sarah -
It's definitely a bracing moment for a series with a large audience of children.
Let's speak shall we of the brilliant Bernard Horsfall? Last seen as Taron in "Planet of the Daleks", he was perhaps most memorable as one of the Time Lords responsible for exiling the Doctor to Earth at the end of "The War Games". And, of course, before that he was Lemuel Gulliver in "The Mind Robber".
I'm delighted that his bio at tardis.wikia.com informs us that all these appearances have been tied together in various ways: tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Goth
Whovians are just the most wonderfully obsessive people ever!
Harry -
Some excellent connectivity going on there. And a tip of the cap to Bernard Horsfall, another great repeat guest actor.
Again, all of part three took only a few minutes of real time, and we are reminded of this by the occasional cuts to Castellan Spandrell and Coordinator Engin. They hover over the Doctor's body like a pair of nurses, exchanging more continuity-loaded dialogue about Artron Energy and such.
We've seen George Pravda before, as the perpetually harried scientist who was lorded over by the megalomaniac Marshall in "The Mutants". Here, he plays the perpetually harried Castellan, and seems perfect for this unsmiling, security-type role. He's aided by the amiable Eric Chitty as Engin. This is one of my favourite guest teams.
Sarah -
They were brilliant! Every moment of their screen time was a joy to watch!
Harry -
All this plotting and virtual reality battling has been fascinatingly watchable, so much so that we've overlooked the driving force behind it all: the Master!
Sarah -
The Master! Things have not been going well since we last saw our favorite evil Time Lord. He's now at the end of his regenerations and little more than a walking corpse.
Harry -
That gelatinous skull face was gross-tastic!
Sarah -
As we know, Barry Letts and Roger Delgado had planned to retire the Master in a final epic battle with the Doctor, but Delgado's untimely and tragic death kept that from happening. It made sense to bring the Doctor back for "The Deadly Assassin", but he just doesn't pack the same punch in this story. The joy of the Doctor-Master relationship has always been their sparring. The story tries, but just doesn't quite get there.
Harry -
Yes, the Doctor-Master relationship only works when they are equals. The Master's reduced physical state holds it back. While the skull mask was wonderfully gruesome, it and the heavy black cloak prevented Peter Pratt from acting with anything but his voice.
Sarah -
And what a voice!
Harry -
Dripping with bile.
He is capable, however, of manipulating Goth into becoming his puppet, leading Goth to his own death. He's also more than willing to use the ol' Tissue Compression Eliminator to kill a couple of people (poor Hilred!).
Ultimately, the Master is undone by his megalo-ambitions. He takes the Sash of Rassilon and intends to use The Eye of Harmony to destroy Gallifrey and become Master of all matter or some such thing. As in the previous story, the villain's timely plunge into a deep hole saves the day.
Sarah -
Those deep holes come in handy, no?
Harry -
The Master is thwarted by the Doctor and Cardinal Borusa quickly formulates a cover story to paper things over. The Doctor is free to go and he departs in the TARDIS... along with a second rather obvious TARDIS that was sitting right there. Oh those Chancellery Guards! Spandrell's going to have to have a word with them.
Sarah -
Hard to imagine how the Time Lords got to be such force in the universe, isn't it?
Harry -
Best Line: "No answer to a straight question. Typical politician."
Favourite Moment: Borusa delivers a searing rebuke to Runcible in the Panopticon.
Lasting Image: The Time Lords in their ceremonial finery.
7/10
Sarah -
Best Line: "I deny this reality. The reality is a computation matrix."
Favorite Moment: The Doctor stealing the Time Lord's gear.
Lasting Image: The rail engine closing in on the Doctor.
7/10
Our marathon continues with Story #89 - The Face of Evil...
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