Harry -
"Come on Ace, we've got work to do."
And with that, the curtain comes down on this season, on the McCoy era, and on twenty-six years of classic Doctor Who.
As for us, Sarah, let's raise a glass to the five-and-a-half years we've spent watching or listening to every moment of it.
Sarah -
It feels almost impossible that we've reach this point. The Seventh Doctor Era felt so far away when we started this project, inspired by Running Through Corridors, Vol. 1.
Harry -
We owe it all to Rob & Toby for putting us in motion.
Sarah -
Remember when we had our copies signed by Rob and Toby at Chicago TARDIS 2011? We never would have guessed that we'd end up finishing the entire classic era before the second volume of the book came out! (But I must admit I'm looking forward to getting Volume 2 at this year's Chicago TARDIS.)
Harry -
Cannot wait for Volume 2. This time we'll be able to compare our reviews with theirs.
Sarah -
The 70s is my favorite decade of Doctor Who, so I'm sure I'll want to re-watch everything once we have the book.
Harry -
Absolutely.
As for "Survival", it was a funny way to end Season 26, wouldn't you say? Instead of a grand finale that is standard now, we got a light three-parter.
Sarah -
We end with a whimper, after the bang of "The Curse of Fenric".
Harry -
Ace wonders what her old mates are up to, so the Doctor whisks them back to good old Perivale on a Sunday afternoon. It's quiet, almost too quiet, and there's nobody around Ace's old haunts.
Sarah -
Oh, Perivale, we hardly knew ye. After two seasons of hearing Ace describe Perivale as the worst place in the universe, it turns out to be incredibly ordinary.
Harry -
The Doctor was bored out of his mind! He practically had to invent a mystery to amuse himself. Missing youths, a demonic cat, celebrity grocers, it's got to be trouble.
Sarah -
Well, to be fair, it usually is trouble.
Harry -
Ace drags the Doctor to the local youth club. There, a self-defence course is taking place, led by the almost Pythonesque tough guy, Paterson.
Sarah -
Paterson is a classic Doctor Who tough guy, who's just waiting to be taken down a peg or two by upcoming events. The moment I find most interesting is when he recognizes Ace and admonishes her for leaving without letting her mum know where she is. It's really the first time we see the consequences of a companion disappearing with the Doctor -- a theme Russell T. Davies will pick up sixteen years hence. (But let's not get ahead of ourselves...we'll be there soon enough.)
Harry -
Considerably less time. It's often pointed out that Ace is the prototypical new era companion, with a backstory that we get to delve into, and with characters from her personal life who we get to meet.
Sarah -
She is definitely the prototype. There are so many future echoes, especially in this final season. I love the moment when they run into Ace's friend Ange, who is surprised to see her -- having heard that she died...or moved to Birmingham. Is there a difference?
Harry -
Ange makes it sound like there isn't. The Doctor meanwhile is hot on the trail of that lumpy black cat, which is zapping random suburbanites out of existence. Just as the Doctor is about to grab the ferocious little feline, Paterson comes blundering up behind him and they both get zapped.
They land on some strange planet with scrub terrain and cheetah people. The cutest, deadliest cheetah people. And who should be manipulating them from inside a darkened tent but...the Master!
Anthony Ainley makes his final televised appearance. We last saw him mucking about the Matrix during the "Trial of a Time Lord". Now he's gotten close to the cheetah people, somewhat too close it seems.
Sarah -
The Master feels like an afterthought in this story. He seems to be stuck there as much as the Doctor and Ace, who gets zapped just before the Doctor and Paterson. Always one to make the best of the situation, the Master may think he's controlling the cheetah people, but maybe not so much.
Harry -
Once everyone lands on the planet of the cheetah people, the Master gives us a cue by describing it as a place that "bewitches you." Basically he's saying that when shit happens that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, that's okay because this planet doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
One thing is for sure, it's a place where in order to survive, you must win the contest of survival of the fittest, because only the strong survive, and writer Rona Munro made sure to work quotes and discussions about surviving things into the script as much as possible, so that we know the theme is all about survival.
Sarah -
We missed an opportunity not playing the "Survival" drinking game. You'd be sloshed by the end with all those references.
Ace, meanwhile, is reunited with her friends Shreela and Midge and a new bloke named Derek (who's wearing the exact Bowie t-shirt I had back in the 80s) and decides it's up to her to sort them out and get back home. That's our Ace, always ready for action!
Harry -
It's clear Ace is always the leader among whatever friends she makes.
Sarah -
The Doctor and Ace soon meet up again, right as a unsuspecting milkman is zapped to the cheetah planet. A melee ensues, with the Doctor warning everyone else not to run. Alas, there's a lot of running going on, playing right into the cheetah people's hands...er, paws.
Harry -
The Doctor yelling frantically for everyone not to panic and run seemed to have the opposite, comedic effect. Tuff guy Paterson is the first to lose his cool, of course. I loved how his clothes were the only ones that became increasingly shredded as the story went on.
Sarah -
That was brilliant. He was slowing crumbling to pieces under the pressure.
Harry -
In the mayhem, Ace is separated from the group and she saves Karra the cheetah woman from drowning. They bond, they talk about the hunt. They go on the prowl.
Sarah -
Karra, of course, is played by the brilliant Lisa Bowerman, who is best known as the voice of Bernice Summerfield on Big Finish Audios. It delights my fannish heart that she appears in the final televised story and then goes on to portray the Seventh Doctor's next companion.
Harry -
She is one of the key people who bridges the classic and wilderness eras. I don't know if Benny has met up with any of the new Doctors yet, but she had a fun whirl with Iris Wildthyme on Big Finish audio.
Sarah -
I love that story.
Harry -
Both the Master and the Doctor know that they are helpless in this place, but neither will admit it to the other. Actually, the Master is shameless enough to admit it. He lured the Doctor here expressly to figure a way out. What a guy! That's what frenemies are for.
Sarah -
Oh, those boys. I can almost hear the Rani rolling her eyes at them from wherever she's currently getting up to mischief.
Harry -
That bewitching stuff is kicking in. The Master is sporting fangs and cat's eyes. Ace and Midge also begin to show similar effects. While the Master harnesses Midge's homing instincts to zap back to Earth, for the Doctor it's a moral dilemma. By asking Ace to do the same, he risks trapping her in that mutant state. Ace decides: they are going back to Perivale.
Sarah -
I have to admit the whole cheetah transformation freaked me out just a wee bit, especially the second-episode cliffhanger when Ace turned to the camera with glowing eyes.
Harry -
The Doctor showed some concern, but I wish he had shown a bit more. But this being a three parter, everybody had to keep things moving and Ace zaps the goodies all back to Earth for the final confrontation, aka Part Three.
Sarah -
Things happen fast in part three and it's all quite brutal. Midge returns to the youth club and uses his cheetah powers to incite his friends to kill Paterson for sport.
Harry -
Midge reveled in his newfound powers, succumbing to the cheetah contamination. It didn't help him with his dress sense, though.
Sarah -
Midge's faux-leather jacket is vintage 1989!
Karra is killed by the Master and returns to human form. Do we know why? I was so confused.
Harry -
Huge unexplained moment there. Were the cheetah people all humans underneath? Were they different types of aliens who had been zapped to that planet and contaminated? Maybe there's something about it in the Target novelization.
Sarah -
The Doctor and Midge race at each other on motorcycles, leading to Midge's death at the hands of the Master.
Harry -
The motorcyle crash was frightful because it was a rare moment where the Doctor hurls himself right into physical danger. Sylvester's Doctor did a lot more of this than I'd remembered. But in keeping with the light comedy touch that Sylvester brought to the show, he ends up buried headfirst in a pile of garbage and old furniture, arse over teakettle.
Sarah -
The Doctor and Master end up back on the Cheetah Planet while fighting each other. The Doctor nearly kills the Master before realizing what he's doing and swearing off violence before being teleported back to Earth.
Harry -
Sylvester was asked to do a lot of yelling throughout this story and it always sounded like he was holding back. She should have just let it all out and let the sound crew deal with it. Anyway, his final tirade somehow zaps him back to Earth again.
Sarah -
The Master is left behind.
Harry -
If the showrunners knew that this was the final season of Doctor Who, I wonder if they were tempted to kill off the Master. Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks were tempted to wrap the character up at the end of the Pertwee era, but for the tragic, premature death of Roger Delgado. There was an opportunity to do it here, this time in the Doctor's hands, but he couldn't do it.
The Master was probably left thinking he'd had enough of that place and its small time cheetah people and he would be better off teaming up with the Daleks...
Sarah -
Back on Earth, Ace is sure the Doctor died in the motorcycle crash.
Harry -
Again, Ace makes a friend and loses a friend in Karra. Just when it seems she's lost the Doctor too, he comes strolling up to reclaim his things.
The final shot of the two friends walking away from the scene, with the Doctor's speech, is the closing moment of the classic era. It was perfect -- closure without complete closure.
The Wilderness Era had begun.
Best Line:
ACE: "Master? Who's he?"
DOCTOR: "An evil genius. One of my oldest and deadliest of enemies."
ACE: "Do you know any nice people? You know, ordinary people, not power-crazed nutters trying to take over the galaxy?"
Favourite Moment: When I noticed Paterson's clothes deteriorating with each passing encounter on the cheetah planet.
Lasting Image: The Doctor and Ace strolling away down the hill.
7/10
Sarah -
Best Line: "Do you know any nice people? You know, ordinary people, not power-crazed nutters trying to take over the galaxy?"
Favorite Moment: The Doctor returning to Ace
Lasting Image: Karra on horseback
7/10
Our marathon continues with The Wilderness Era...
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