Doctor Who: The Big Review

Season 8 (1971)

He's now firmly in the role, Pertwee is moving on to his second season. We say goodbye to Liz Shaw in the last serial of Season 7, making way for the wonderful Jo Grant (portrayed by Katy Manning). This season will bring in new long-time foes like The Master as well as harkening back to some other creatures like the Autons. With five serials, there's little room for error, so fingers crossed for a great season with some rather brilliant stories!

As always, I will grade each story on an A+ to F scale, judging it fairly, and with respect to the era it aired. Judging an episode from the 1960's with the same expectation of a modern episode would not be fair. Below is a summary of my grading criteria:

For each serial, I will provide a list of the main cast (omitting a few who don't appear often), and a list of some key facts of the episodes, such as the writer and director. I will then offer a little synopsis and my overall verdict. My favourite serial will then be listed at the bottom, where I will offer a few further thoughts and opinions.

Below is a table which offers some short, concise figures and a more in-depth description follows just below.

1. TERROR OF THE AUTONS (four episodes)

Main Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Third Doctor), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Roger Delgado (The Master), Michael Wisher (Rex Farrel).

Broadcast: 2 January 1971 - 23 January 1971

Writer: Robert Holmes

Director: Barry Letts (uncredited)

Synopsis: The Third Doctor and UNIT work to stop the Master, a renegade Time Lord, from using a radio telescope to summon an invasion force of the incorporeal intelligence the Nestenes to Earth.

Verdict: Delgado is a brilliant Master. The story, however, isn't exactly perfect and does grow dull in some places. Having said that, Manning is simply stunning to watch and there was plenty of things happening to keep me watching. Although why are they using blue screens so often for the backdrops?!

GRADE: B

2. THE MIND OF EVIL (six episodes)

Broadcast: 30 January 1971 - 6 March 1971

Writer: Don Houghton

Director: Timothy Combe

Synopsis: The Master begins plotting once again. This time he attempts to begin World War Three by destroying a peace conference between China and the US, using a nerve gas missile he hijacked from UNIT.

Verdict: A very interesting start, but it does seem to tire to some extent. Delgado is still good, but the stories are becoming quite repetitive, so I'll be interested to see what happens next (hopefully more than just him trying to destroy Earth and The Doctor prevents it). The story does feel as if it doesn't tie itself up properly, leaving it feeling somewhat unresolved. It was okay, but nothing special.

GRADE: C

3. THE CLAWS OF AXOS (four episodes)

Broadcast: 13 March 1971 - 3 April 1971

Writer: Bob Baker & Dave Martin

Director: Michael Ferguson

Synopsis: The grotesque Axos organism plan on spreading its axonite spores across the Earth in order to feed from all life on Earth. It's up to The Doctor to put a stop to it.

Verdict: This was a much more interesting story; the Axons were quite fun to watch. Even with a similar sub-plot to the previous stories (The Master and The Doctor), the story was quite strong with a nice development and some fantastic effects. I'm going to try and forget the childish and sporadic score in the last part... That was bad.

GRADE: B

4. COLONY IN SPACE (six episodes)

Main Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Third Doctor), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Roger Delgado (The Master), Morris Perry (Captain Dent), Helen Worth (Mary Ashe), John Ringham (Ashe), Bernard Kay (Caldwell), Nicholas Pennell (Winton).

Broadcast: 10 April 1971 - 15 May 1971

Writer: Malcolm Hulke

Director: Michael E. Briant

Synopsis: The Time Lords send The Doctor and Jo to the world of Uxareius in 2472. They discover a series of faked monster attacks on colonists. With that in mind, The Master soon shows up in search of an ancient doomsday weapon.

Verdict: I really enjoy this purely because it is a breath of fresh air after so many stories based around UNIT and contemporary Earth. The set design is rather good, and Jo seems to have a better role to play. I definitely feel like The Doctor and Jo solidified their friendship here. Was the story anything special, probably not, but it was a nice story that broke away from the typical setting of Pertwee's era so far.

GRADE: B

5. THE DAEMONS (five episodes)

Main Cast: Jon Pertwee (The Third Doctor), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Roger Delgado (The Master), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Stephen Thorne (Azal), Damaris Hayman (Miss Hawthorne). Stanley Mason (Bok).

Broadcast: 22 May 1971 - 19 June 1971

Writer: Barry Letts & Robert Sloman

Director: Christopher Barry

Synopsis: The Master wreaks havoc by awakening the ancient creature known as Azal with the intention of being granted its immense power.

Verdict: Another story of The Master attempting to destroy the Earth... Yay. However, this one was really quite special. The effects, the mix of fantastical elements, the production values, it was all quite brilliant! One thing though: why is The Doctor so rude to Jo? It's discomforting to watch. However, this is still a rather brilliant story that was really quite thought-provoking! I loved it!

GRADE: A

My Conclusions

Season 8 had some good stories, nothing too brilliant, but definitely not bad. Each serial did have a striking similarity with others, since they're almost all based on Earth and have The Master involved with its intended destruction, so the season did struggle to show off the wonder of Doctor Who as a result. Maybe it would've been more tolerable if Season 7 wasn't near enough the same? Even with these negatives, I do have a favourite story.

My favourite serial had to be The Daemons. This was a very easy decision for me. Let's get the few negatives out of the way. I didn't like Jo's treatment, I'll mention that later on in this post, but here I did roll my eyes a few times. The key moment was when The Doctor told her off, like a school kid. It was cringeworthy and seemed unnecessary. I feel she was constantly made out to be a child, like she wasn't capable alone. It felt backwards, almost. However, it did seem to come full circle when she was technically the one who saved the day. I feel The Doctor has a very paternal hold over Jo, and it's somewhat nice and sweet but also rather strange since she's a fully grown adult. I also found the noise of the barrier annoying, but that was so minor.

Anyway, let's move on to the positives. The production value of this story was insanely good. Every episode had some rather interesting visuals and some stunning effects for the time period. It was a pleasure to watch. Azal was actually quite brilliantly done, and he was rather frightening. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole story. I must give credit to Damaris Hayman because Miss Hawthorne was such an interesting character. It was both funny, yet thought-provoking and somewhat politically driven. I really enjoy the message of belief and power and the power of science over magic. It was quite on-the-nose, but it didn't faze me and got me discussing it afterwards. If I can talk about the story in a critical way like that, it's done its job well. I'm glad The Master had a different storyline too, kind of. One of my favourite stories so far, this one.

Season 8... Now, where do I begin. Another season of Earth-bound stories but with a twist. However, once you've had two episodes with the same twist, it does get a tad repetitive. This 'twist' being The Master's involvement. It almost felt like it was the same main plot line for every story; The Master wants to destroy Earth and The Doctor stops it. These stories dotted around and appearing every so often works tremendously, but when it's serial after serial after serial, it loses its gravitas. On top of that, I am growing more and more tiresome of the contemporary Earth stories with UNIT. There's little variation and I'd love to see Pertwee flex his Time Lord fingers with more varied stories which Colony in Space introduced us to. Having said that, I am trying to watch the stories without letting this affect my opinion because some of these stories were really quite strong. The only thing bringing them down is the repetition, so I'm trying my best to ignore this aspect. The Daemons was a breath of fresh air since it went down a different route for this plot, so maybe more of that will be nice?

Another thing I struggled with was the music, sometimes it just felt like too much or too little. I know it's likely a reflection of the time, but sometimes it took you out of the story. I'm thinking back to the last part of The Claws of Axos for that one. It was almost like a child was making it with how simple and experimental it sounded. I don't know if this will be a continuing issue, but it is most notable with this and last season. However, in some episodes, the music was fantastic and really didn't impact the story negatively at all. It'll be interesting to see what develops in the future.

I would also like some more development for Jo. Manning seems like such a capable actress, yet we know very little about her character so far. Some people are hating characters like Yazmin Khan and such for having too little development, but at least there's something. I feel Jo is being underused and continuously treat like a spare part or less than the others. I don't like that. I especially don't like how she is sometimes spoken to or the lines she is sometimes given. It's almost like she's made out to be a child, talked down to, ditsy. I imagine it's so she can grow into a really strong Scientist, but right now, she seems ill-treat. Colony in Space was where I truly felt her become more of her own person, so I'm expecting brilliant things for Jo Grant in Season 9 on.

I really must applaud the actors though, Pertwee is a joy to watch and I'm really enjoying every other character even if they can be grating from time to time. I do also like that the stories have a bigger connection, even if that connection is something I'm enjoying too much, I do like the idea behind them a lot.

I'm hoping Season 9 has something more to offer because I'm truly missing the more wonderous nature of Hartnell and Troughton's eras. These Earth-bound stories are becoming monotonous. Even with that in mind, I am still enjoying Pertwee a lot, I just want him to have some real Space/Time travel to work with! Back to the grading, this season had an average grade of a B. This translated to one of the highest performing seasons to date, being beaten only by Season 2. Now, my run of negative comments may suggest this is a load of rubbish, but... The episodes themselves were quite strong, almost everyone was a great success. I just didn't like the repetition of stories which is why I appreciated Colony in Space quite a lot. Season 9 is next, and I do have some high expectations, but even if the season as a whole doesn't necessarily work, the episodes themselves really do. With that in mind, maybe Season 9 will be one of the best?!

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