TGRRL: Neuromancer, by William Gibson

We live in a very meta world, and I’m okay with that. It’s a byproduct of the internet age, or perhaps it’s the product of the internet age; we no longer simply experience something–instead we experience it from all angles, from multiple viewpoints. By the time a meme hits a site we frequent, it’s out there in a dozen different places, or a hundred. If a newsworthy event happens, we can watch it on television, and simultaneously see thirty different carriers’ takes on it online, plus a horde of commentary articles and posts, all complete with reader comments.

And–most pertinent to today’s topic–if a new fictional item (say, a movie or a novel) comes out, we already know all about it before we get there. Commentary and analysis are everywhere; opinions litter the ground like leaves in the fall; and SPOILERS! Spoilers are practically unavoidable. In fact, avoiding spoilers has become a sort of sport these days; fan forums go to great lengths to police them, and it’s a mark of pride to some fans that they make it to the actual viewing of the movie or episode, the reading of the book, the playing of the game, without having anything spoiled. It’s a phenomenon that would have blown our minds thirty years ago; no one talked about spoilers in the eighties! (Surely someone will come up with counter-examples; I’m not saying it never happened, but that it wasn’t prominent the way it is today.)

I’m not usually one of those fans. As I said, I’m okay with the meta-world we live in. I don’t generally mind spoilers; I rarely ever get to a piece of media while it’s fresh anyway, and I want to be part of the discussion. I can form my own opinions regardless of those of people I interact with, even if they beat me to it. But every so often, I discover a work about which, despite all that, I find myself saying “I wish I had found this when it was new.”

First Edition Cover

Such a work is William Gibson’s Neuromancer, on which I really feel like I missed out. Granted, I was only five when it was published (July 1, 1984), but that doesn’t take the sting out of it! I was closer to thirty-five when I read it, a few years ago; and though that certainly made it easier to follow the story and its concepts, it didn’t help at all with understanding the book’s place in history.

Neuromancer is widely considered to be the…well. Let’s not say first (again, someone will surely find counterexamples). Let’s say it’s considered the prototypical novel of the cyberpunk genre. It’s the source of many conventions of cyberpunk as we know it (but definitely not all; Gibson himself expressed some fear that people would think its aesthetic was plagiarized from the then-recent film Blade Runner, which is–oddly–based on a novel that is really not cyberpunk at all). The terms “cyberspace” and “matrix” (in the sense adopted by the Matrix films) were coined by Gibson. (“Cyberspace” actually originates in an earlier short story, Burning Chrome, which is set in the same universe as Neuromancer, but it is this story that popularized the term.) Virtual environments, implanted electronic interfaces, powerful artificial intelligences, cybernetic ninjas–all feature heavily here, and if Gibson didn’t originate them, he elevated them to an art form.

Briefly: The novel tells the story of Henry Case, a washed-up hacker (for lack of a better term) who has been rendered biologically unable to access cyberspace (and I know that I’m grossly oversimplifying here, AND abusing the terminology–Gibson fans, please just remember that I’m making this as accessible as possible, for newcomers and longtime fans alike). He is recruited to perform a virtual heist of sorts, obtaining a powerful AI, and then assisting it with gaining access to–and merging with–another AI (the titular Neuromancer). The two were built separately to avoid certain legal considerations, but were designed to act as two halves of a super-AI with ramifications for the entire world. Case ultimately succeeds, though not without losses; and the world is, indeed, changed, though the book doesn’t delve into just how it’s changed. (There is a sequel, though, which I have not yet read; feel free to comment!)

British First Edition Cover

Neuromancer is a finely crafted novel, despite Gibson’s own concerns that it was an “adolescent” novel (as reported in the 2000 documentary No Maps for These Territories). The problem, for me, isn’t that it’s a bad novel–it isn’t. It’s that it wasn’t my first novel of this type. That honor goes to Snow Crash, which we’ve already covered. These two novels form a somewhat infamous comparison. They’re similar in aesthetic, similar in concepts, even a bit similar in plot. I’ve read disparaging comments to the effect that Snow Crash is a copy of sorts of Neuromancer; I have no idea if that is true–a quick search didn’t give me any clear answers–but I can see how someone would come to that conclusion. Where Snow Crash is over the top and a bit silly on occasion (and believe me when I say that in the nicest possible way; I think everything about it is intentional), Neuromancer is earnest and gritty, even before “gritty” was everywhere the way it is today. Fans of Neuromancer don’t generally like to see the two compared favorably–or at least that has been my experience.

But I encountered Snow Crash first, and as a result, Neuromancer was a harder read for me. It felt like the derivative work, and that’s simply not the case; nevertheless I couldn’t shake the feeling. It was therefore harder to maintain my interest, and since then it’s been harder to recall the plot (I had to do a bit of research to refresh my memory for this post). At the same time, I lacked the context to understand the book’s impact at the time; having only grown up in the eighties, rather than lived through them as an adult, I never had a firm grasp on the cultural mix into which it was born. In short, I’ve never known a world without cyberpunk. Its concepts are familiar to me, and always have been; Neuromancer never felt revolutionary to me. And that’s unfortunate, because Neuromancer deserves better.

Nevertheless, it’s still a worthy book. I suspect any new reader approaching it these days will have a similar experience to mine (though possibly with less Snow Crash!), and to those readers I say: Read it anyway. Try to look at it through fresh eyes. It will be worth your time.

Happy reading!

How’s 2020 treating you? Have you set a reading goal for the year? You can join me on Goodreads, where I’m working toward a goal of 100 books for the year; and you can also join in the fun on Reddit over at /r/52book. So far, I’ve completed 15 of 100 books for the year. Come and join in!

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Audio Review: Trial of the Valeyard

I’m trying out something different today. As my reviews of the seasons of Classic Doctor Who seem to have been fairly well received—at least on Reddit.com, where I’ve cross-posted them, and possibly here on the blog as well—I want to do an occasional series of reviews of Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio dramas, as well. I say occasional, because I’ll most likely be irregular in obtaining the audios and listening to them; unlike the classic television series, I can’t (and wouldn’t want to) get them for free. Big Finish is a relatively small company (though their output is prodigious), and I fully approve of what they’re doing, and therefore I’m perfectly fine with paying their asking price. On the other hand, I’ll be buying them just as I can afford to do so, which is irregularly.

As a consequence, I expect I’ll be obtaining them in no particular order, just based on what interests me. With various ranges to explore, establishing an “order” for these audios is a bit insane anyway. I loosely intend to follow the “main range” of Doctor Who stories, but I’ll insert others as they catch my attention. To that end, and following my review of (television) season 23’s Trial of a Time Lord, I’ve started with the audio sequel, Trial of the Valeyard, which I’m covering today.

I haven’t yet decided on a particular format for these reviews. For my television reviews, I’ve covered each serial of the season in order, and discussed the setting (place and time), the protagonists (which Doctor and which companions), antagonists (including discussion of previous appearances), a short plot summary in most cases, connections and similarities to other television stories (past and future), and my likes and dislikes. Some of that will carry over to the audios, I’m sure. As resources, I’ll have the television series, Big Finish’s site with its summaries of the audios, and the TARDIS wiki; the books I’ve used for reference for the television series mostly predate the audios, and won’t be of much use here, but I may refer back occasionally for some clarification. When it comes to connections with other events in the series, I’ll probably have to refer mostly to the television series, at least at first; I don’t know enough yet about the audios or novels to make those connections. If this series works out well enough, I may eventually expand to cover some of the novels as well.

I intend to keep these entries short, since they cover single stories as opposed to a season; future entries won’t have the introductory section above. With that said, let’s get started! (Spoilers ahead for anyone who has not listened to this audio.)

Trial of the Valeyard begins with the Sixth Doctor again being pulled by the Time Lords to their space station/courtroom, again sans companion. He reacts in typically overblown fashion, but calms down a bit once he finds out that he isn’t on trial this time. The date is, as usual for Gallifreyan scenes, unknown; it appears to be some time after The Trial of a Time Lord, as there has been time for the Valeyard to enact other schemes and be apprehended. The station (apparently called Zenobia, according to the wiki; I know there’s a history there, but I haven’t looked into it yet) is orbiting a gas giant called Etarho, pronounced “Eta-rho”, as in, the Greek letters (equivalent to a long E and the letter R). It’s the Valeyard in the dock this time, for crimes that—crazily even for Gallifrey—are not permitted to be announced. Neither is the Valeyard’s true identity allowed to be stated—an issue which dances around the matter of the Doctor’s true name, given that he is known to be a form of the Doctor—and neither is the previous incident on Ravolox allowed to be mentioned. (The Doctor, of course, plays this up for comedy as often as he can.)

The Valeyard, once the Doctor’s prosecutor, now makes an outrageous demand: He wants the Doctor to be his defense. It seems preposterous at first, but it makes sense; the Doctor, being given over to justice, will see the trial prosecuted as fairly as possible. If the Valeyard is innocent, it works in his favor; if not, at least the truth will come out. The Doctor is enticed, because at the least, he wants to preserve the Valeyard’s life; only the Valeyard can shed light on his own origin, which is a fate that the Doctor is keen to avoid.

The Valeyard goes on to force discussion of his origins as much as possible. He states that at a point in the Doctor’s personal future, the Thirteenth Doctor, having gone mad, will experiment on himself to extend his life and regenerations. The result is the Valeyard. The planet they are now orbiting has a moon, on which the experiments took place, in proximity to a door into the Matrix; this is where the Valeyard was allegedly discovered as a child, and where, just before the trial, he was arrested. The moon, however, has subsequently been destroyed by the Time Lords, for classified reasons. The Valeyard says he was there in search of those secrets, as he himself cannot regenerate any more without intervention. He further says that as a child he was sent to a hidden Shadow House, where Time Lords suffering from failed regenerations are hidden away. He claims—heretically, to the Time Lords—that Rassilon imposed the twelve-regeneration limit. Now found guilty, he is sentenced to immediate execution, and the sentence is carried out.

Leaving the trial, the Doctor forces his way into the moon’s displaced timeline using his TARDIS, and heads down to the surface. There, he finds things to be much as the Valeyard had said. He finds a mad old hermit, whom he quickly deduces to be his own final incarnation; and with the hermit, he finds a sealed box that is keyed only to his biodata. The Inquisitor and other Time Lords arrive to claim the box; it is revealed that they want the secrets of immortality supposedly hidden inside, but that the Valeyard refused to open it. The Doctor deduces that the box contains a bomb, and that the alleged Thirteenth Doctor is the Valeyard in disguise; he escaped the execution by turning the machinery into a matrix door. This entire plot, it seems, has been a revenge scheme on his part. He triggers the bomb on a short delay, and escapes back into the Matrix; the Doctor and the Inquisitor escape in the TARDIS, and return to the courtroom. The Doctor posits that it is impossible to know which parts of the Valeyard’s stories were truth, and that he will try again; and further, that the Valeyard had help from within the Council. The Inquisitor promises a full judicial inquiry.

I’m failing to do justice to the events of this story in my summary. The arguments used by the Doctor, the Valeyard, and Inquisitor Darkel are complex, but change quickly; for a courtroom drama, the pace is quite fast. It demonstrates the difficulty required to write a new Doctor Who story, given that one must balance all the various bits of knowledge we have about Gallifrey, the Time Lords, the Doctor, and so on. Still, it’s a good story, and adds a bit to the Valeyard’s narrative and character; it manages to do so without locking down the character’s backstory, which is important given the possibility that he may yet reappear on the television series. (I’ve stated several times that I would love to see that happen; I favor the idea that the Metacrisis Doctor becomes the Valeyard.) Michael Jayston is fantastic as always; I felt it was even more clear here that there is a connection between him and the Doctor, in that he behaves much more like the Doctor than in his previous appearance. He’s clearly devious, but he’s also clearly intelligent and quick, with a trick always up his sleeve. Colin Baker puts in a good performance as well, with all of the energy of his time onscreen. This is a more mature Sixth Doctor; he still acts like a fool, but he does it strategically, using his buffoonery to his advantage. Lynda Bellingham (RIP) is even better than the first time around as Inquisitor Darkel (her name having been given in another audio rather than on the show); she seemed a bit beaten down by the circumstances during Trial of a Time Lord, but here, she is more than a match for both the Doctor and the Valeyard in terms of wit. John Banks rounded out the cast as the mad hermit; and though his lines were few, they were well-delivered. It was with the hermit that we get several of this story’s references; he mentions Polly Wright, Totter’s Yard, and the “fish people” from The Underwater Menace. The Doctor himself mentions various other characters, such as the Monk, the Master, and the Rani; and the Valeyard makes reference to the Seventh Doctor’s scheming and the Eighth Doctor’s frequent struggles with death. (This should have given the lie to the Valeyard’s claims about his origin; he claims to have had no knowledge of himself when found, but here claims to remember those lives.)

All in all, not a bad introduction to the world of the audio dramas. I enjoyed it; and I’m looking forward to more. Next time: if I stick with my current plan, we’ll be covering The Sirens of Time, the first audio in Big Finish’s main range, with the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors. See you there!

All audios reviewed in this series may be purchased here from Big Finish; link to this story is below.

Trial of the Valeyard

The Trial of a Time Lord: Classic Doctor Who Rewatch, Season Twenty-Three

We’re back again, and a little early this time, with our Classic Doctor Who rewatch! Ordinarily I post about a week apart, but with the end of the classic series approaching, I’m trying to catch my posts up to my viewing. Today we take a look at something new and experimental for its day: Season twenty-three, also known as The Trial of a Time Lord.

The Doctor’s day in court.

The Doctor is no stranger to standing trial; this is at least his fourth trial. (For those keeping count, he was tried and convicted as the Second Doctor in The War Games; he briefly stood trial for assassination as the Fourth Doctor in The Deadly Assassin, but managed to wiggle out of it; he was tried and sentenced to death in a gross miscarriage of justice as the Fifth Doctor in Arc of Infinity; and now here we are again with the Sixth Doctor.) Here he’s being tried for interference with history and violation of the laws of time. His remaining regenerations are at stake; this adds a little weight to the foreshadowing of death in last season’s Revelation of the Daleks. Something is different this time, however: There’s a new Time Lord serving as prosecutor, and he seems to have something personal against the Doctor. He calls himself the Valeyard, or “learned court prosecutor” in old Gallifreyan; and he has secrets of his own.

The Inquisitor and the Doctor

This season is a bit of an experiment for its day; unlike any season before it, it’s one long story arc—in fact, technically it’s one long story, period. Officially it was only ever titled The Trial of a Time Lord; however, for production purposes it was broken into four parts, which each got an unbroadcast title of its own. I’ll use those titles here for the sake of organization, but when it comes to counting serials, I’ll stick with what has historically been the most popular reckoning, and count the season as one story. It’s worth mentioning that the 45-minute format was abandoned, and 25 minutes again became the standard; this seasons consists of fourteen 25-minute episodes. Based on number of episodes, this season is a bit abbreviated from the past lengths; however, fourteen episodes will be standard from here on out.

Doctor, meet Drathro.

Part One, covering episodes 1-4, is titled The Mysterious Planet. It opens with the TARDIS being drawn onto a space station, which quickly is revealed to belong to the Time Lords. The Doctor emerges, sans companion, and finds that he has been placed on trial again. He declines a defense attorney, and chooses to speak for himself in response to the Valeyard. We don’t know the date for any of the trial sequences, other than that it is in the “Rassilon Era”, and after the events of The Five Doctors from the point of view of Gallifrey; the Doctor was named Lord President in that story, but has since been deposed (again) for dereliction of duty. The Valeyard begins his attack with footage from the allegedly-incorruptible Matrix of one of the Doctor’s recent adventures with Peri, on the planet Ravolox in approximately the year 2,000,000.

They seem to be getting along better.

We don’t know how long it’s been since the preceding story, but Peri is far less adversarial toward the Doctor (she’s still whiny though). Big Finish, of course, has taken full advantage of this indefinite gap, filling it with stories. We get a new supporting character, the criminal Sabalom Glitz; he’s a decent and likeable guy regardless of his illicit career path. He borrows the Brigadier’s famous line: “Five rounds rapid should do the trick.” (The Brigadier’s daughter, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, will do the same in Series Nine’s The Zygon Inversion.) The planet Ravolox turns out to be a displaced Earth; it was moved by the High Council to hide some shady activities of their own. It’s presumable that the Earth is later returned to its original location, but we don’t actually see it happen; as this story is used as part of the prosecution’s case, it doesn’t end as well as they typically do. The story does become a commentary on the value and definition of life through the Doctor’s arguments with the homicidal robot Drathro; and it introduces the concept of “black light”, which can serve as a power source. Its menacing service robot is very reminiscent of the War Machines from the serial of the same name. We get a new rendition of the title theme this season, though the visuals remain the same. Interestingly, the footage of the TARDIS being pulled to the station is the final footage in the classic series to be shot on film (though the sequence will be reused throughout the Trial season); all the rest will be shot on video.

Jabba the–wait, no, wrong series.

Having laid the foundation of his case against the Doctor, the Valeyard continues his testimony in Part Two, Mindwarp. This part takes us to Thoros Beta, the homeworld of Sil and the Mentors; Sil was last seen in Vengeance on Varos. This story is about a century after that; the Valeyard, using Earth years, places it rather circuitously in 2379. I couldn’t help feeling that this story would have done better as an audio; it’s the first televised story of which I’ve ever felt that way. The story centers on the Mentors’ efforts to find a new body for their leader, Kiv, who is dying due to a mutation. They are oppressing a nearby humanoid race, led by the warlord King Yrcanos; the man himself is being used in experiments, but escapes and overcomes his conditioning.   Thwarted, Kiv settles on Peri as a substitute.

Peri, or should I say, Kiv?

This, therefore, is Peri’s exit serial, as she is seen to die, first by being displaced from her own body by Kiv, and second by being shot in Yrcanos’s attack on the Mentors’ lab. It becomes apparent as well that the Time Lords manipulated circumstances to ensure that the attack would succeed and kill everyone in the lab; they are unabashed about this, and state that it was to prevent a far worse disaster. However, Peri isn’t usually counted among the companions who have died; more on that later. Meanwhile, back at the trial, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that something isn’t on the level, as the Valeyard rests his case.

Welcome aboard, Mel!

The Doctor takes up his defense in Part Three, Terror of the Vervoids. Again using the Matrix, he shows footage from the Hyperion III starliner in the year 2986 (clearly stated by the Doctor). Oddly, it’s an adventure from the Doctor’s personal future; though the Matrix is non-linear with regard to time, and therefore contains these records, it seems strange that the Doctor would be conversant with something that hasn’t happened to him yet! But no one in the courtroom thinks this is strange at all, or even mentions it. Stranger still, we get a new companion without any introduction: Melanie “Mel” Bush, of Pease Pottage, England. (Seriously, who names British towns?) We will never get her introduction on screen; ideally, it would be shown next season (more on that in a moment), but with Colin Baker’s unexpected exit, the opportunity was lost. Spinoff material has since covered that gap. However, it is clear that THIS adventure is not near the beginning for her, as she is familiar and at ease with the Doctor in a way that Peri never managed to be.

Enter the Vervoids.

The story itself is of the Vervoids, plants that take over host populations, and in fact are an intelligent species of their own when fully grown. However, they spread like wildfire, displacing entire species; and as such they constitute a hazard to Earth and other planets. The Doctor is forced into destroying them—and thus, the Valeyard twists the Doctor’s defense into a new accusation: That of genocide, which is punishable by death. However, the Doctor argues that the Matrix can be manipulated.

His last time in the console room, and she makes him exercise. Hmpf.

This story includes the Sixth Doctor’s final scene in the TARDIS console room. He doesn’t appear there in the finale, and doesn’t return next season. Or rather, I should say, it’s Colin Baker’s final appearance there; the Sixth Doctor, on the cusp of regeneration, does briefly appear there next season, but is played by Sylvester McCoy.

The Doctor faces himself as the Valeyard.

We finish up with Part Four, The Ultimate Foe, which takes place in its entirety aboard the space station and in the Matrix. It’s only two episodes instead of four, the shortest of the season. We pick up right where we left off, with the Doctor asserting that the Matrix has been altered, and the Valeyard and the Inquisitor denying it; in fact, they summon the Keeper of the Matrix as a witness to its incorruptibility. They are almost immediately countered, however, by the appearance of Melanie Bush, Sabalom Glitz, and an unexpected third party: The Master. He speaks from inside the Matrix, giving the lie to its incorruptibility, and states that he is not the one who changed the records, although he did send Mel and Glitz to assist the Doctor. He explains that the Valeyard IS the Doctor, or rather, an amalgamation of the Doctor’s darkest aspects, arising from somewhere between the Doctor’s twelfth and final incarnations. (Interestingly, with the advent of a new regeneration cycle in NuWho, this greatly widens the possibilities! A History of the Universe, without any NuWho materials to review, actually predicted this possibility; it states, “Note also that the Master says “twelfth and final”, not “twelfth and thirteenth”, leaving open the possibility that the Doctor will survive the end of his regenerative cycle.”) He wants the Doctor’s remaining regenerations for himself. Exposed, the Valeyard flees into the Matrix itself, where the Doctor follows.

STILL not an altruist.

Of course, the Master, being the Master, is not doing this out of the goodness of his heart. He considers the Valeyard a greater threat than even himself, and he will brook no competition. At the same time, with both being the Doctor (in one sense or another), he’s okay with them killing each other, or with either one of them killing the other. From his point of view, it’s a win either way. Aside from that, he has broadcast the proceedings, causing the common people of Gallifrey to unseat the High Council; he intends to take control of the planet in their absence. Unfortunately, the Valeyard has similar plans, and in addition, he also plans to kill everyone in the courtroom. The Doctor, Mel, and Glitz, from inside the Matrix, must thwart all of these plans, and defeat the Valeyard in a final confrontation. (We do see that he survives at the end, disguising himself as the new Keeper of the Matrix.)

The moment of truth!

Some items of interest: The hands in the sand within the Matrix are similar to the hand mines on Skaro in The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar, and I suspect may have inspired that scene. Overstimulation can render a Time Lord catatonic and open to hypnotic suggestion, which is not too farfetched, but seems like a serious weakness. The Doctor intends to return Mel home at the end so he can meet her in the proper order, but it’s not seen whether this actually takes place, as Colin Baker was unceremoniously fired by the BBC between seasons. (He was offered the chance at a regeneration story, but denied the opportunity for a third season, therefore he declined to film the regeneration, and by default, Mel’s origin story as well.) Peri is seen to have survived, with the footage of her death having been a manipulation by the Valeyard; she has since married King Yrcanos, and never returns home, but at least she survives. (Spinoff materials have since made her fate quite muddled.) Sabalom Glitz is quickly one of my favorite supporting characters; he reminds me a great deal of Richard Mace from The Visitation, who was fantastic. At one point the Doctor claims to be over 900, as several later incarnations will also state. And finally, this is the final appearance of the Time Lords as a society in the classic series. They’ll get a few more mentions, and the Doctor is traveling to Gallifrey at the beginning of the 1996 movie, but they will not actually appear again onscreen until the revived series’ The End of Time.

The Trial of a Time Lord

This season is much tighter and better all around than the previous season. It’s the high point of Six’s tenure for me; I hate to admit it, but I never could really see him as the Doctor until this season. Mel is a much more likeable companion than Peri, though I understand that she doesn’t rank high on lists of companions; I expected her to be annoying, but she really wasn’t, except for that high-pitched scream she uses so often. I do wish we could have had her origin, but I understand other sources have provided it. Michael Jayston was fantastic as the Valeyard; he’s everything I would expect from an evil Doctor—calculating, passionate, anger barely held back, and possibly a bit crazy too. There’s a popular theory that says that the Metacrisis version of the Tenth Doctor will become the Valeyard, and it certainly fits; by his original regeneration cycle, that’s about as close to “between twelfth and final” as one could get, and I unashamedly would love to see that happen—David Tennant, I think, bears enough resemblance to Michael Jayston in body shape and facial shape that he could play the role. Still, the character has appeared again in other materials, and if he doesn’t reappear onscreen, it’s good to know the character wasn’t left hanging.

Next season: The Seventh Doctor takes the stage! See you there.

All episodes can be viewed on Dailymotion; links are below.

The Mysterious Planet

Mindwarp

Terror of the Vervoids

The Ultimate Foe

The Past is the Present: Classic Doctor Who Rewatch, Season Twenty

It’s been a hectic few weeks behind the scenes, but today, we’re back, with our Classic Doctor Who rewatch, season twenty! Let’s get started!

Omega, looking less than his best today.

I should mention at the outset that this is an anniversary season—twenty years, to be precise—and thus it’s a little different. This season is filled with appearances by villains and other references from the past seasons and incarnations of the Doctor, culminating with the very first official anniversary special, The Five Doctors. (The Three Doctors, while definitely an anniversary story, was technically not a special; it was a normal part of its season.) In our season opener, Arc of Infinity, it’s the villain and former Time Lord Omega, last seen in The Three Doctors—and once presumed dead. Here he returns, in a plan to retake our universe and punish the Time Lords—and he needs the Doctor to do it.

Welcome back, Tegan…were you gone?

The plan is simple, but difficult. Omega wants to cross back into our universe, but as he remains in an antimatter state, he needs the body and biodata of a Time Lord to do so. In vengeance for his previous defeat, he chooses the Doctor as his target; but it quickly becomes clear that someone high in the Gallifreyan hierarchy is also involved, as only a Councilor can access the Matrix to retrieve the biodata. That someone, in the end, proves to be Councilor Hedin, who has been taken in by hero-worship of Omega, and wants to restore him, not believing the danger he represents. In the meantime, the High Council’s solution is simple and draconian: They will execute the Doctor. Without him, Omega cannot cross over.

I feel like I should know that face…

By sheer coincidence—or perhaps not, given that Earth was the setting for The Three Doctors—Omega also has made contact with Earth in 1983 Amsterdam, and has hidden his (antimatter?!) TARDIS there. How he obtained such a TARDIS is never known, but it is clearly a more advanced model than the Doctor’s Type 40. Tegan Jovanka, having recently left the TARDIS and lost her job, stumbles into the situation and is captured by Omega for use as bait. In this manner she eventually rejoins the TARDIS crew. Omega is returned to his own universe, and the Doctor is permitted to go on his way.

Borusa: Man of Way Too Many Faces

Some observations: Borusa has regenerated again—he seems to go through them faster than the Doctor!—and has been named Lord President in the Doctor’s absence. There are also a new Castellan and a new Chancellery Guard Commander (played by a pre-Doctor Colin Baker!), replacing Andred. Neither Andred nor Leela are seen, though it is mentioned that they have married. Gallifrey seems to have relaxed its no-aliens policy, which I like to attribute to Leela. The High Council is considerably smaller in this era than it will be seen to be during the Time War (The End of Time); however it may be that, like the Senate and House in America, not every member must be present to be in session. The Doctor says to Maxil, “If I’m to die, I want to prepare myself mentally. For that I need to be alone.” This bit of dialogue could be taken as distant foreshadowing of the concept of a confession dial. And last, Peter Davison joins Hartnell, Troughton, and Baker in the tradition of playing both the Doctor and a villain in the same episode; he plays Omega’s short-lived form after transference, which shares the Doctor’s biodata.

Let’s go in the snake-headed cavern. What could possibly go wrong?

Snakedance takes us to the planet Manussa in the year 3426, though it takes some mental gymnastics to work out evidence that the date is in Earth years; the planet is a former Earth colony, but with a convoluted history of its own, with two separate empires in its past. One of those empires is the Sumaran Empire, ruled by another past enemy: the Mara. That being exerts its influence over Tegan here, causing her to pilot the TARDIS to Manussa, and then taking control of her to bring itself back to the corporeal world. On Deva Loka, it seemed to lack the strength to control more than one person; here it suffers no such restriction, and quickly spreads its influence. It cannot be beaten with mirrors this time, and must be destroyed by the Doctor, who requires the aid of an old mystic named Dojjen.

The Mara returns!

The Doctor’s behavior here is uncharacteristically frantic and excitable; it’s very similar to the Eleventh Doctor. At one point he’s stuck in a cell; too bad he doesn’t have some kind of sonic device to use as a lockpick…nah, that’s just crazy talk. (Never thought I’d get to use THAT joke again. Even Nyssa jokes about it!) Having rejoined the TARDIS, Tegan shares a room with Nyssa, which is odd given the TARDIS’s internal volume; they seem to just like the company. Overall this story is well-written, and along with its prequel Kinda, it has traditionally been well-liked and enjoyed high ratings. It’s not my personal favorite Fifth Doctor story (after some thought, that would probably be The Visitation), but it’s high on the list.

Welcome back, Brigadier!

Mawdryn Undead takes us back to Earth, and brings back a familiar face: Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. With that reference, though, the serial touches off the infamous UNIT dating controversy. To put it briefly—and I won’t go into all the details here—if the dates given in this serial are accurate, then none of the previously-given chronology for the UNIT stories (and by extension, all the way back to The Abominable Snowmen) can add up properly. We could easily have an entire post about this controversy; therefore I’ll just give the dates as noted in the story, and I’ll say that I just simply consider them incorrect (specifically, too early by several years). I take the vast majority of UNIT stories to be roughly contemporary with their broadcast dates, which this serial would not allow. To me, discarding the dates here is the easiest and simplest solution.

Turlough and the Black Guardian

The story begins in 1983; its flashback scenes are set in 1977. It’s the beginning of the Black Guardian Trilogy, which sees the return of that villain, who wants to fulfill his long-ago promise to destroy the Doctor for his defeat in the Key to Time incident. The Black Guardian enlists the aid of a teenage schoolboy named Vislor Turlough, who has a secret of his own: he’s not from Earth. His true origin will not be revealed until next season. Turlough happens to be a student at Brendon Public School, where the now-retired Brigadier teaches mathematics. In exchange for a promise of freedom from Earth, Turlough willingly helps the Black Guardian in this and the next two stories, but balks at killing the Doctor; he’s not evil, just young and desperate. The Brigadier can’t remember his previous involvement with the Doctor at first; he believes this to be the result of a nervous breakdown in 1977, but in reality, it’s the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. Put another way, his past and present selves encounter each other, and upon physical contact, they short out the time differential between them; the resultant discharge of energy temporarily affects his memory. He is eventually set right by the Doctor.

I hate to be THAT GUY, Mawdryn, but your brain is showing.

The subplot from which the serial takes is title is that of Mawdryn, a scientist of a race which attempted to steal regeneration technology from the Time Lords. It backfired miserably, leaving him and his fellow scientists constantly dying, but never dead. They, too aren’t evil, only pitiable; they want the Doctor to willingly give up his regeneration energy—all his remaining lives, in the first hint that regeneration energy is even a thing—to allow them to die. When his companions are affected, he agrees to do so; but the Brigadiers’ discharge of temporal energy at the right moment powers Mawdryn’s machine and saves him the trouble. Afterward, Turlough joins the crew.

A simple schoolboy problem gone catastrophically wrong.

I don’t often talk about behind-the scenes situations, but in this story, the production team inteneded for Ian Chesterton to make an appearance. William Russell proved unavailable, unfortunately; however, we got the Brigadier instead, so I am not complaining. But, what a missed opportunity! Ian has long been one of my favorite companions.

I don’t even know what this thing is. It was a weird and dull story.

Part two of the Black Guardian Trilogy, Terminus, takes us to the 35^th century and the station of Terminus, parked at the approximate center of the universe. The TARDIS is sent there via sabotage by Turlough, who is still under the power of the Black Guardian. Terminus is allegedly a hospital facility for the sufferers of Lazar’s Disease, which has plagued the known universe. However, secretly it kills the sufferers. It used to have the ability to travel in time; it inadvertently created the universe when it traveled back too far and a hydrogen engine exploded, triggering the Big Bang. Tragically, that is NOT the story at hand here, and is only tangentially relevant; the Doctor must prevent a second such explosion which would destroy the universe. (The Doctor himself will be responsible for a “reboot” of the Big Bang in The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang.)

Not sure if they’re reacting to Nyssa’s exit, or to this dry story.

The Guardian again fails to kill the Doctor, and grows more impatient with Turlough. Nyssa opts to leave the TARDIS here; she is first infected with Lazar’s Disease, then cured, and subsequently she chooses to stay behind and help the other sufferers. The Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough travel on without her.

A sailing ship. In space. It’s gonna be one of those stories, folks.

Enlightenment wraps up the Black Guardian Trilogy, and sees the reappearance of the White Guardian for the first time since The Ribos Operation. It returns us to the Sol system, but not to Earth; rather it takes place on a collection of anachronistic ships in space, which are piloted by the Eternals. These beings are immortal, incorporeal (except by choice) and above mortal beings, but are not on the level of gods; they require a living being in order to think for themselves. In this, their only televised appearance, they race through the solar system in search of Enlightenment—true knowledge—which is guarded by the Black and White Guardians. One of them—Wrack, captain of the Buccaneer—is in league with the Black Guardian to cheat and win the race; Wrack will gain ultimate power, and the Black Guardian gains a final opportunity to destroy the Doctor. The tables are turned on him when the Doctor causes the death of Wrack, and Turlough uses the gem of enlightenment to destroy the Black Guardian (temporarily—as the White Guardian points out, he must always return).

The Guardians, watching over the cosmic egg cup–I mean, Enlightenment.

To me this serial was the low point of the season, and I didn’t care for it. However, it sees Turlough, now free of the Black Guardian, join the TARDIS crew in truth, though he still has his own secrets. It adequately wraps up the Black Guardian arc, but felt flat as a story.

The Master and Kamelion.

The King’s Demons is the true season finale, as the following story is a special which was released much later. It’s a historical, dealing with the signing of the Magna Carta, which happens offscreen. It sees the return of the Master, who brings with him a new companion, the robot Kamelion. Kamelion has the ability to impersonate anyone; the Master intends to impersonate King John and see him discredited, therefore preventing the signing, which will weaken human history. Okay, it’s kind of a weak plot for the Master. At any rate, Kamelion also has the weakness of being controllable by anyone with sufficient telepathic strength. As a result, at the end, he is freed by the Doctor and joins the crew; but he will only appear once more, spending the rest of his time hiding in the TARDIS to prevent being taken captive again.

En garde!

The Doctor again shows off his swordsmanship, following in the footsteps of the Third and Fourth Doctors; while no other classic Doctor will do so, the Tenth Doctor will revive the tradition in The Christmas Invasion. The fight against the disguised Master was completed without stuntmen; Peter Davison and Anthony Ainley did all the sparring themselves. Again, the Master’s identity is concealed with a double anagram; the character is called “Sir Gilles Estram”, an anagram for Master, while the actor was credited as “James Stoker”, an anagram for “Master’s Joke”.

“Hey, Doctor.” “Yeah?” “You think they’ll figure out my identity this time?” “Not a chance, Estram, not a chance.”

This is an odd choice for season finale. In addition to being a fairly weak (but enjoyable) story for the Master, it’s also a two-parter, the only one of the season. On the other hand, part one is the 600^th episode of the series; and it’s possible it may have been planned with the knowledge that there would be a special before next season.

That’s a wax figure of Tom Baker in the background.

For the twentieth anniversary special, we return to Gallifrey for The Five Doctors. It truly is an anniversary special, being broadcast (at least, in America, though oddly not in the UK) on 11/23/83, twenty years to the day after the show’s premiere. (British viewers would have to wait two days for their broadcast.) It’s also the first Children in Need fundraising special for Doctor Who, though the revived series has greatly expanded this tradition. Though it’s called The Five Doctors, in fact only four appeared in new footage; Tom Baker declined to appear so soon after the end of his tenure, a decision he has since stated he regrets. Fortunately, footage from the unused Shada was present, and reworked to give him a bit of coverage in which he and Romana II were caught in a time eddy, much as the First Doctor was in The Three Doctors. Also, sadly, William Hartnell had since passed away, and therefore his part was played by lookalike Richard Hurndall (who, unfortunately, has also died in the intervening years). A number of companions appear as well: Susan (now visibly older), Sarah Jane, Romana II, Tegan, Turlough, K9 Mark III (never before seen on the show, but seen in the failed pilot for K9 and Company) and the Brigadier, as well as (in illusionary form) Jamie, Zoe, Mike Yates, and Liz Shaw. K9’s appearance sets the stage for his appearance in NuWho’s School Reunion. The Third Doctor and Second Doctor appear to be snatched from near the end of their lives; the Second Doctor is visiting a UNIT reunion and reminiscing with the Brigadier, and the Third Doctor knows Sarah Jane and is somehow aware of the Fourth Doctor despite never having met him. All of the above characters are collected by the Time Scoop and taken to the Death Zone on Gallifrey, a relic of Gallifrey’s bloodthirsty past, which contains the tomb of Time Lord founder Rassilon.

The Master, summoned! (Could not find a clearer picture.  He is strangely absent from most of the pictures I found for this serial.)

The High Council summons the Master to rescue the Doctor, and promises him a new regeneration cycle as a reward. This is the first indication that they can grant such cycles. He takes them quite seriously, but most likely does not receive the regenerations here, although we know he will receive such a cycle in the Time War. It’s also an early indication that the Master’s relationship with the Doctor is deep and complex; he muses to the Council that “a cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about.” He is instrumental in helping the Doctor, but in typical Master fashion—that is, through trickery and deception—and he escapes at the end. For once, he’s NOT the villain.

Rassilon! The man, the myth, the legend, the corpse!

The Villain, as it turns out, is Borusa. Nearing the end of his life, he seeks immortality, which it is said that Rassilon discovered. He uses the Doctor’s various lives to clear the way to Rassilon’s Tower and tomb, and there encounters the mind of the fabled Time Lord himself; however, it proves to have all been a trap, when he accepts immortality only to find himself a living relief carved on Rassilon’s sarcophagus. Immortality, it seems, is too dangerous for anyone. The Doctor—in all his forms—quickly declines immortality, and leaves via the time scoop (though an unused ending would have had them all, with their companions, crowding into the TARDIS—I would have liked to see that!). Meanwhile, the Fifth Doctor becomes Lord President by default—and nimbly frees himself from the office, going on the run from his people once again. “After all, that’s how it all started.”

Things I enjoyed this season: Snakedance was a pleasure to watch, though it required a lot of attention. (I’m watching these serials in between tasks at work, so sometimes that is a challenge.) Tegan makes a wonderfully haughty villain, given that her usual personality alternates between mousy and whiny. Mwdryn Undead was great as well, and it was wonderful to see the Brigadier again. The dating of the story may have been clumsy, but the execution was great; any story that directly relies on time travel has the potential to be unworkable, but this one worked out well. I didn’t care for the rest of the Black Guardian Trilogy; a dozen times I was thinking “oh come on, the Doctor MUST know what Turlough is doing by now, even Tegan sees it!” The King’s Demons was a lot of fun, and while I’ve complained a bit that it’s not a very worthy plot for the Master, it was also nice to see something on a smaller scale. I liked Kamelion, and think the character deserves more development than he gets; it’s unfortunate that the prop was so difficult to use, limiting his appearances. And The Five Doctors was great all around. I suppose I may be easy to please, but I’ve enjoyed every multi-doctor story I’ve ever encountered, and this was no exception. Of course I wish that Tom Baker had appeared; but I think they covered it well, and not clumsily. The interaction between the various Doctors and their mismatched companions was something I would love to see more of (attention BBC: Please write a thirteen-Doctor story while these people are still alive! Get on it!).

Next season: Deaths everywhere, and the Doctor too! See you there.

All episodes may be viewed on Dailymotion; Links are Below

Arc of Infinity

Snakedance

Mawdryn Undead (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Terminus

Enlightenment

The Kings Demons

The Five Doctors