Although the era of the Sixth Doctor is possibly the weakest era of the series, this volume of reviews introduces a fantastic villain, brings back an earlier Doctor and companion team and crosses paths with a famous author. Remember to check out our full archive of Doctor Who goodness.
The Mark of the Rani
The story picks up in 19th century England with a group of miners transforming into thugs who are attacking people and machinery around the village. The mystery lies with the Rani who is using the local bathhouse to anaesthetise miners and take from them the neuro-chemicals she needs for her experiments. The Doctor and Peri are investigating the violent attacks with inventor George Stephenson. At the same time the Master arrives and convinces the Rani to team up with him in order to destroy the Doctor once and for all.
Although the Doctor and Peri have plenty of adventure on their own the real selling point of this serial is the Master and the Rani. Her and the Master each bring their own special brand of madness to the story and their mutual distrust of each other make for a fun dynamic. They bounce back and forth and try and gain the upper hand on each other while working together to destroy the Doctor. Out of the adventures of the Sixth Doctor this is the first must-see episode. The Rani was intended to be a recurring villain for the Doctor, but as the show was put on hiatus shortly after this introduction she only made one more canon appearance.
The Two Doctors
In the space stations future the Sixth Doctor appears and finds the smell of decay in the air. When they learn about the Time Lord’s involvement the Doctor finds himself overcome with weakness. He begins to suspect that he has died in the past and seeks out his friend Dastari to help. They uncover a plot by Chessene, Shockeye and a group of Sontarans to obtain the Time Lord technology. Knowing that time travel technology would make the Sontaran armies invincible the Doctor’s set out to stop them.
In spite of the massive continuity clusterfuck that occurs within the continuity of this serial the return of the Second Doctor is always welcome, especially when Jamie is in tow. The two Doctors and two companions all bounce off each other immensely well and it’s a pity that more of the story wasn’t based around their interaction. The story is strangely long winded meaning that it’s pretty far into the story before they meet up and even then the Second spends most of his time with Shockeye.
Ultimately it comes down to chasing a given McGuffin while the Sontaran busy themselves with kidnapping, murder and the usual posturing as a leading warrior race. It’s not the most engaging story in the series but it does serve the meeting of the characters well enough. At times it feels like a wasted opportunity given the return of the Second Doctor and Jamie.
Timelash
Much of the episode revolves around the retrival of an amulet from the Timelash which would take power from the Borad’s counsellors. In order to coerce the Doctor into helping Peri is taken hostage. When trying to guide the TARDIS into the Timelash the Doctor winds up in Scotland, 1179, where he picks up a young H.G. Wells. Along with the rebels and Wells the Doctor sets out to uncover the mystery surrounding the Borad, who is revealed to be an insane scientist whose experiments with the underground reptilian race of Morloxs has resulted is disturbing mutations. Borad himself has already been afflicted, and is partly reptilian.
This is step up from the rest of the Sixth Doctor’s run, combining many of the elements that make Doctor Who entertaining. The Borad is a well crafted villain and matches the Doctor on an intellectual level, making for a worthy conflict. The inclusion of a young H.G. Wells (referred to only as ‘Herbert’ until the end) is well handled with plenty of references to ‘The Time Machine’ scattered throughout the episode for literary fans to spot. A good villain, some historical Easter Eggs and a solid science fiction concept make this a serial worth watching.
The Revelation of the Daleks
The Great Healer who runs the facility is revealed to be Davros himself, reduced to a disembodied head. One of his pawns, Kara, has hired a mercenary named Orcini to destroy Davros. The Doctor, Orcini, Natasha and Grigory are all seeking a way to destroy Davros. Meanwhile a group of Daleks loyal to the Dalek Supreme arrive from Skaro and, seeing the blasphemy being carried out by Davros, also wage a battle against their original creator.
The general concept of the episode is sound. If things were left to the changing nature of the Daleks and the conflict between Davros and the Dalek Supreme then things may have worked out for the better. Sadly there are some rather poor additions to the story. Firstly there’s a downright confusing inclusion of a DJ who is obsessed with the 60’s and 70’s of Earth and seems to serve as little more than comic relief. Seeing Alexi Sayle dressing up as Elvis or a hippy is only going to be amusing to a very small portion of the audience.
It was also this episode that sealed the fact that I would never like the Sixth Doctor. This occurred during a scene in which the Doctor gives Peri a boost over a wall. When his pocket watch gets broken. Peri is immediately apologetic, noting that she knew how much he liked the watch and how terrible she felt about breaking it. The Doctor responds by telling her that there were no hard feelings before upending the broken watch and tipping the broken pieces out onto her lap. It was a mean spirited gesture that was unwarranted and only served to rub her guilt in her face. From this point on it was just waiting until the next regeneration.