Refers To All Four Episodes Suggestive Spoilers
The newly regenerated Doctor is carried to the Tardis by his companions little realising that a trap is being set by his arch enemy The Master With the recasting of the title role DOCTOR WHO had firmly and broken away from the 1970s and entered and a new decade proper . . Not only that but due to the execs of the BBC the traditional slot of Saturday tea time had also been changed which meant the show was now broadcast during the evenings of Mondays and Tuesdays which led to howls of complaint from the conservative crowd of fandom . As it turned out the execs were justified since season 19 was a big hit in terms of viewing figures . The previous season was scheduled opposite Buck Rogers on ITV which meant Baker's final series had a viewership that rarely got more than 6 million viewers and struggled to make the Top 100 viewed shows for that week . Viewing figures increased by a third with season 19 and the show often crept in to the Top 50 viewed shows
Season 19 also saw the change over from the Bidmead influenced era in to the more traditional type of action adventure fantasy that the show was known for . This story being written by outgoing script editor Christopher H Bidmead contains his hallmarks . It's part of the present continuous storyline started by The Keeper Of Traken from the previous year . Being a regeneration story it's a game of two halves with the first half taken up by the quirks of the new Doctor and the second half has the Doctor realising that he's been trapped by The Master and trying to foil his plan . It doesn't however make for a very involving story since it's trying to be a little bit too clever , not as bad as one of the messes we get with Moffat but when you've got a tale that is inspired by a drawing by surreal artist MC Escher that tells you something
As a production it's an uneasy mix of good and bad and old and new . The first half isn't a very good indicator of what the new Doctor will be like , it's a regeneration story don't you know ? but does contain some very good location filming at Buckhurst Park which doubles for the exterior scenes of the Planet Castrovalva but the interior scenes of Castrovalva are a bit too brightly lit and would be indicative of the problems that would plague other stories throughout the show . It also has a plot turn featuring the secret identity of The Master which became constant through the decade and led to the production team having to come up with an anagram for the end credits and Radio Times
The newly regenerated Doctor is carried to the Tardis by his companions little realising that a trap is being set by his arch enemy The Master With the recasting of the title role DOCTOR WHO had firmly and broken away from the 1970s and entered and a new decade proper . . Not only that but due to the execs of the BBC the traditional slot of Saturday tea time had also been changed which meant the show was now broadcast during the evenings of Mondays and Tuesdays which led to howls of complaint from the conservative crowd of fandom . As it turned out the execs were justified since season 19 was a big hit in terms of viewing figures . The previous season was scheduled opposite Buck Rogers on ITV which meant Baker's final series had a viewership that rarely got more than 6 million viewers and struggled to make the Top 100 viewed shows for that week . Viewing figures increased by a third with season 19 and the show often crept in to the Top 50 viewed shows
Season 19 also saw the change over from the Bidmead influenced era in to the more traditional type of action adventure fantasy that the show was known for . This story being written by outgoing script editor Christopher H Bidmead contains his hallmarks . It's part of the present continuous storyline started by The Keeper Of Traken from the previous year . Being a regeneration story it's a game of two halves with the first half taken up by the quirks of the new Doctor and the second half has the Doctor realising that he's been trapped by The Master and trying to foil his plan . It doesn't however make for a very involving story since it's trying to be a little bit too clever , not as bad as one of the messes we get with Moffat but when you've got a tale that is inspired by a drawing by surreal artist MC Escher that tells you something
As a production it's an uneasy mix of good and bad and old and new . The first half isn't a very good indicator of what the new Doctor will be like , it's a regeneration story don't you know ? but does contain some very good location filming at Buckhurst Park which doubles for the exterior scenes of the Planet Castrovalva but the interior scenes of Castrovalva are a bit too brightly lit and would be indicative of the problems that would plague other stories throughout the show . It also has a plot turn featuring the secret identity of The Master which became constant through the decade and led to the production team having to come up with an anagram for the end credits and Radio Times