Time-Flight

(Series 19, Episodes 23-26)

Summary: After a perfunctory spot of mourning, the Doctor finally gets Tegan home and now she wants to leave again.  Concorde travels back to the dawn of time and the Master pops up again, this time with a dodgy accent.  (I’ll confess, my phone deleted my notes for these episodes but these are the main impressions it left in my memory.)

Watch it because: Concorde nostalgia.

Original Air Date: 22-30 March 1982.

Doctor: Peter Davison.

Companions: Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) & Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding).

Writer: Peter Grimwade.

Director: Ron Jones.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

Earthshock

(Series 19, Episodes 19-22)

Summary: We open with Adric performing a classic teenage tantrum-and-sulk before the TARDIS appears in some creepy caverns where the Doctor gets accused of murdering archaeologists and then defuses a bomb sent by the Cybermen, who are seeking to destroy the Earth for…reasons.  The action then transfers onboard a freighter on course to crash into the Earth that’s been hijacked by Cybermen who show a little more emotion than one would expect from a race who champion the emotionless way.  Adric finds a way to divert the ship but he’s just a little too late. I always did wonder what had happened to the dinosaurs…

Watch it because: “Now I’ll never know if I was right.”

Original Air Date:8-16 March 1982.

Doctor:Peter Davison.

Companions:Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) & Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding).

Writer:Eric Saward.

Director:Peter Grimwade.

Producer:John Nathan-Turner.

Black Orchid

(Series 19, Episodes 17-18)

Summary: Nyssa gets a double, the Doctor plays cricket and there’s an Indian in the cupboard.  An aristocratic family hide a secret in the attic as Agatha Christie meets the Phantom of the Opera.  People are very blasé about bodies in cupboards and it seems any old random policeman can get a lift in the TARDIS these days.  A word of advice - don’t get between Adric and a buffet.

Watch it because: Who doesn’t love a costume party?

Original Air Date:1-2 March 1982.

Doctor:Peter Davison.

Companions:Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) & Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding).

Writer:Terence Dudley.

Director:Ron Jones.

Producer:John Nathan-Turner.

The Visitation

(Series 19, Episodes 13-16)

Summary: Tegan is inexplicably still really huffy about not being at Heathrow and Adric bucks stereotypes by tripping and spraining his ankle as the gang meet a gravelly-voiced thespian turned highwayman in 17^th Century England where the peasants are being controlled by androids in bejewelled suits.  Rather worryingly, the Doctor’s response to an attempted beheading by an android brandishing a scythe is “not again.”  And it seems that not only is the Doctor responsible for inspiring Nero to burn Rome but may have accidentally started the Great Fire of London.  What a pyromaniac.

Watch it because: “Why not smile and let me go?”

Original Air Date: 15-23 February 1982.

Doctor: Peter Davison.

Companions: Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) & Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding).

Writer: Eric Saward.

Director: Peter Moffatt.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

Kinda

(Series 19, Episodes 9-12)

Summary: Or what I initially thought was the most non-committal story ever until I realised I was pronouncing the title wrong.  The Doctor gets excited over some elaborate wind chimes that put Tegan to sleep, Nyssa takes a nap and yet another crazy man takes a shine to Adric.  Tegan has a creepy out-of-body experience and should really avoid eating apples when there’s serpent imagery and talk of paradise.  The Doctor’s pronouncement that it’s “the end of everything” may be a little hasty as the Mara can’t stand the sight of itself in a mirror, and it seems that the Doctor may have the hots for Todd but who can blame him?

Watch it because: Hindle and Sanders after their transformation are a delight.

Original Air Date: 1-9 February 1982.

Doctor: Peter Davison.

Companions: Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) & Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding).

Writer: Christopher Bailey.

Director: Peter Grimwade.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

Four to Doomsday

(Series 19, Episodes 5-8)

Summary: Tegan seems so determined to get back to make her flight – she should really just take the opportunity to slack off through time and space.  The TARDIS lands on a spaceship containing three green crusties with a suspicious interest in fashion who are on their way to Earth.  They’ve got what appears to be a bunch of kidnapped people from various Earth cultures throughout history on board but it’s ok because it turns out everyone’s a cyborg.  Adric sucks up to a power-crazed autocrat just because he calls him smart, Nyssa gets brainwashed and the Doctor foils a crackpot plan to travel in time and enslave the people of Earth using poisonous frogs.

Watch it because: The Doctor’s penchant for puns.

Original Air Date: 18-26 January 1982.

Doctor: Peter Davison.

Companions: Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) & Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding).

Writer: Terence Dudley.

Director: John Black.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

Castrovalva

(Series 19, Episodes 1-4)

Summary: Problems with his regeneration mean the Doctor has to hang out in the Zero Room whilst the Master uses Adric as a stooge to programme the TARDIS controls to fly them into the Big Bang.  Adric’s caught in the Master’s web, luring the Doctor to Castrovalva - the only place where he can sort out his regeneration complications – where Tegan and Nyssa set out with the Doctor in the Zero cabinet in very unsuitable shoes.  Everyone becomes trapped in a splintering universe and a suspicious librarian saves the day.

Watch it because: I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be absolutely splendid.

Original Air Date: 4-12 January 1982.

Doctor: Peter Davison.

Companions: Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) & Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding).

Writer: Christopher H. Bidmead.

Director: Fiona Cumming.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

Logopolis

(Series 18, Episodes 25-28)

Summary: In a contender for most boring opener ever, the Doctor and Adric measure the TARDIS and get stuck in TARDIS stacking dolls while air hostess Tegan struggles to change a tyre and gets watched by a creepy white guy.  The Master is back and shrinking people and Nyssa just loves what the air on Logopolis has done for her father’s complexion.  The Master unleashes entropy and then must join forces with the Doctor to prevent the end of the universe.  Interestingly, the only planet with the computers to do this is Earth so they all return, only for the Master reveals he’s rigged it so he can control everything.  Sadly for him, he’s so busy trying out his maniacal villainous laugh that the Doctor manages to pull the plug on his ambitions but unfortunately ends up falling to his death from a satellite dish.

Watch it because: “It’s the end.  But the moment has been prepared for.”  Farewell, Tom Baker. 172 episodes is a helluva run.

Original Air Date: 28 February – 21 March 1981.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) & Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding).

Writer: Christopher H. Bidmead.

Director: Peter Grimwade.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

The Keeper of Traken

(Series 18, Episodes 21-24)

Summary: The Doctor and Adric are back in N Space and have about much chemistry as a broken Bunsen Burner.  After the Doctor has a rather soporific conversation about the fate of Traken with its ailing Keeper, they land there only to be immediately framed by a wooden statue which turns out to be Crusty Master’s TARDIS.  The Master’s plan to become Keeper is foiled but he pops out of his clock TARDIS to take over the body of the anagramically named Tremas.

Watch it because: The Master reborn…as Anthony Ainley.

Original Air Date: 31 January – 21 February 1981.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Adric (Matthew Waterhouse).

Writer: Johnny Byrne.

Director: John Black.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

Warriors' Gate

(Series 18, Episodes 17-20)

Summary: The crew of a spaceship are using the cast of Cats as unwilling navigators, the Doctor makes friends with some very wordy robotic knights and, like all good SatNavs, K9 spends most of his time recalculating.  It’s hard to keep up with time jumping around all over the place but it turns out to be all about slave trading (I think).  Rorvik rather unsportingly tries to strangle the Doctor with his own scarf whilst Romana is left in the void with K9, saving the cat people from enslavement.

Watch it because: Eerily atmospheric direction.  Paul Joyce may not have been practical but he certainly had vision.

Original Air Date: 3 – 24 January 1981.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Lalla Ward), Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) & K9 Mk II (Voiced by John Leeson).

Writer: Stephen Gallagher.

Director: Paul Joyce.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

State of Decay

(Series 18, Episodes 13-16)

Summary: Still stuck in E Space, the Doctor meets a bunch of peasants with curiously advanced technology who are all afraid of the Wasting. Adric waltzes in and makes himself at home, revelling in being the chosen one.  (I know he gets a lot of hate but I kind of love how much of an unapologetic dick he is.)  Things get a little suspicious when the Doctor discovers fuel cells filled with human blood and, if you ask me, that tower looks an awful lot like a rocket…

Watch it because: Zargo’s beard.  Truly a thing of beauty.

Original Air Date: 22 November – 13 December 1980.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Lalla Ward), Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) & K9 Mk II (Voiced by John Leeson).

Writer: Terrance Dicks.

Director: Peter Moffatt.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

Full Circle

(Series 18, Episodes 9-12)

Summary: Romana mopes in her room because she doesn’t want to go back to Gallifrey whilst the Doctor is cheerfully dismissive of her concerns.  Instead of getting back to Gallifrey, they end up in E-Space where some colonists are living in fear of swamp monsters.  I do admire Romana’s guts in saying “it’s just a spider” but it is the size of a small dog with glowing eyes so a little healthy fear wouldn’t go amiss. The Deciders have been lying to their people just because no one can work out how to fly a spaceship but, after a lot of indecision for a bunch of deciders, they manage to fly their ship away.  Adric arrives in his yellow pyjamas with his badge for being good at maths and is so devastated by the death of his brother that he stows away on the TARDIS.

Watch it because: Don’t we all wish we were seventeen-year-old Andrew Smith?!

Original Air Date: 25 October – 15 November 1980.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Lalla Ward), Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) & K9 Mk II (Voiced by John Leeson).

Writer: Andrew Smith.

Director: Peter Grimwade.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

Meglos

(Series 18, Episodes 5-8)

Summary: Science takes on superstition over a dodecahedron on the planet of the dodgy blonde wigs.  A pair of imbecilic bounty hunters offer up a Jacob Rees-Mogg lookalike as a sacrifice and are menaced by a large cactus (don’t question how the cactus managed to work all those computers with no fingers).  Said cactus traps the Doctor and Romana in a phenomenally boring fold in time which they are forced to ham-act their way out of and Romana suffers the fate of so many Doctor Who companions when she is attacked by a plant.  Despite everyone being very confused by the Doctor’s cactus-face doppelganger, Meglos is defeated and the people of Tigella learn to live and work side by side in peace and harmony.

Watch it because: Jacqueline Hill.  Need I say more?

Original Air Date: 27 September – 18 October 1980.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Lalla Ward) & K9 Mk II (Voiced by John Leeson).

Writer: John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch.

Director: Terence Dudley.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

The Leisure Hive

(Series 18, Episodes 1-4)

Summary: JNT has arrived and everything gets an update - neon logo, synth music and a new, questionable wardrobe for the Doctor.  Plus, tachyonics, based on some real gen-u-ine science, gets an airing.  There’s a fabulous opening scene on Brighton beach where Romana accidentally kills K9 during a game of fetch.  The Argolins sport crazy beehives but suffer from dramatic rapid ageing and the tension with the lizards outside is well built up.  Luckily, there’s a magical reset button and Argolin Mena gets every parent’s dream - a chance to raise her son again and get it right.

Watch it because: We’re in the eighties now.

Original Air Date: 30 August – 20 September 1980.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Lalla Ward) & K9 Mk II (Voiced by John Leeson).

Writer: David Fisher.

Director: Lovett Bickford.

Producer: John Nathan-Turner.

The Horns of Nimon

(Series 17, Episodes 17-20)

Summary: Histrionic Soldeed tries to sacrifice the young of Aneth to bull-headed Nimons in the power complex.  The Doctor attempts to give K9, his robotic dog, mouth-to-mouth, the Nimons don’t really have a clue what’s going on (must be that massive head impeding their vision) and Soldeed’s dreams of conquest are offed along with him.  The Anethans wear rather fetching yellow pyjamas and exchange such killer dialogue as:

“What are they doing?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why don’t you know?”

“I don’t know.”

Watch it because: It gives me the opportunity to share this masterpiece:

Original Air Date: 22 December 1979 – 12 January 1980.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Lalla Ward) & K9 Mk II (Voiced by David Brierley).

Writer: Anthony Read.

Director: Kenny McBain.

Producer: Graham Williams.

Nightmare of Eden

(Series 17, Episodes 13-16)

Summary: Two spaceships materialise on top of each other and the crews proceed to bicker about liability as though they’ve had a low speed collision reversing out of a space in a supermarket car park.  The Doctor and Romana attempt to mediate and salvage the situation but things are complicated by Professor Tryst, a scientist with a collection of alien slaves and a dodgy accent, and the fact that crew members and passengers keep getting mauled to death.  In the end, it all turns out to be about drug smuggling. Romana is pretty wet and the Mandrels are ridiculous Muppet rejects, but they do have lovely flares.

Watch it because: Despite its flaws, it’s an interesting morality tale about the drugs trade.

Original Air Date: 24 November – 15 December 1979.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Lalla Ward) & K9 Mk II (Voiced by David Brierley).

Writer: Bob Baker.

Director: Alan Bromly.

Producer: Graham Williams.

The Creature from the Pit

(Series 17, Episodes 9-12)

Summary: Romana plugs in the Doctor’s phone and finds a whole load of missed calls and is none too pleased to be manhandled by hairy bandits with a limited vocabulary.  There’s monopoly in space and killer tumbleweed controlled by a whip (and doesn’t that guy look happy to be cracking it?)  The Doctor literally jumps into a hole and then gets menaced by a giant potato with a humongous cock.

Watch it because: "Well, to be fair I did have a couple of gadgets which he probably didn't, like a teaspoon and an open mind."

Original Air Date: 27 October – 17 November 1979.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Lalla Ward) & K9 Mk II (Voiced by David Brierley).

Writer: David Fisher.

Director: Christopher Barry.

Producer: Graham Williams.

City of Death

(Series 17, Episodes 5-8)

Summary: Doctor Who meets its first crack in time as Romana, inexplicably dressed like a 1920s' schoolgirl, and the Doctor take a romantic trip to France.  The soundtrack made me momentarily think I was watching a seventies' arthouse film about people running urgently around Paris but then the saxes kick in and we’re in a sleazy crime thriller about a convoluted art heist.  Some famous art lovers turn up to critique the TARDIS, spaghetti head Scaroth the Jagaroth is splintered across time and poor old Duggan just needs a drink.

Watch it because: Doctor Who’s French Connection: we’ll always have Paris.

Original Air Date: 29 September – 20 October 1979.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Lalla Ward).

Writer: “David Agnew” (David Fisher, Douglas Adams & Graham Williams).

Director: Michael Hayes.

Producer: Graham Williams.

Destiny of the Daleks

(Series 17, Episodes 1-4)

Summary: We’re caught in a (logic) trap!  In Doctor Who’s favourite location, the quarry, K9 is written out rather preposterously with laryngitis and for reasons unknown Romana regenerates and tries on bodies with the ease of trying a new coat.  Romana and the Doctor engage in a comedy sketch routine before things turn a bit serious and the shooting starts.  The Morvellans have borrowed the Swampies’ wigs and sprayed them silver, the Daleks are shoutier and bluer than ever before and are back to using humans to do their mining (I guess it’s hard to hold a pickaxe with a plunger).  Like an elderly relative, Davros sits and sulks in his chair and the Doctor sends a Dalek into a meltdown with his hat.

Watch it because: Cobwebby Davros awakens…

Original Air Date: 1 – 22 September 1979.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana II (Lalla Ward).

Writer: Terry Nation.

Director: Ken Grieve.

Producer: Graham Williams.

The Armageddon Factor

(Series 16, Episodes 21-26)

Summary: The Marshal is nuts, Crusty McCrustyface is working for the Black Guardian (who is actually the White Guardian…or both?!) and, really, who the hell is Drax?  The Doctor puts his TARDIS on shuffle and re-hides all the bits of key they’ve spent 26 episodes assembling.  Adieu Romana I - seems like you might get some inspiration for your next face from Princess Astra.  (Top tip: when you’ve got too many subplots, you can always trap one in a time loop.)

Watch it because: A sense of completion.

Original Air Date: 20 January – 24 February 1979.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Mary Tamm) & K9 Mk II (John Leeson).

Writer: Bob Baker & Dave Martin.

Director: Michael Hayes.

Producer: Graham Williams.

10 Top Summer Albums

The sun is out!  Summer's finally arrived!  Time to crack out the barbeque, pour the Pimm's and dust off the deckchairs.  And here, in no particular order, are ten top albums to add to your summer playlist.

B.B. King & Eric Clapton - Riding with the King

Just look at the album cover.  Roll back the top and go driving along a sun-soaked highway with this collaboration between two blues legends.



Lord Huron - Lonesome Dreams

There's a reason so many Lord Huron tracks were picked for the Walk in the Woods soundtrack.  Every song entices you to take your best buddy and hit a mountain trail.  You can smell the outdoors in this album.




John Martyn - Solid Air

Put on a pot of coffee and sit out on the patio with this jazz-folk fusion.




Chris Rea - On the Beach

Clue's in the title.






Ben Howard - Every Kingdom

Possibly a personal one, but this conjurs memories of lying in the Exmoor sunshine waiting to be picked up after a particularly tough bike ride across the moor, listening to this album on my iPod.




Rusted Root - When I Woke

You might remember stand-out track 'Send Me On My Way' from the 1996 film of Matilda. Guaranteed to put you in the most positive of summery moods.



Kylie Minogue - Kylie

A controversial choice, perhaps, but what summer party would be complete without the debut album from the self-styled Princess of Pop?





Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

Another personal choice - this time memories of a harbourside restaurant in Dubrovnik, with the sun setting over the Adriatic.


Kate Rusby - Awkward Annie

The English countryside in musical form.







The Specials - The Specials

Would any summer playlist be complete without a bit of reggae?

The Power of Kroll

(Series 16, Episodes 17-20)

Summary: Green people who live in a swamp are rather aptly named Swampies, in a familiar story of human colonists viewing the natives as savages.  The Swampies call up their god - the titular Kroll - by jogging on the spot to a techno beat, the humans are essentially harvesting giant squid fart and John Leeson swaps voice duties to show off his ‘staring anxiously and confused at a screen’ skills.  Thankfully, the Swampies live to protest another bypass.  Fun fact: the green dye didn’t come off.

Watch it because: Well, if you want to see what John Leeson looks like…you could probably just do a Google image search.

Original Air Date: 23 December 1978 – 13 January 1979.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Mary Tamm).

Writer: Robert Holmes.

Director: Norman Stewart.

Producer: Graham Williams.

The Androids of Tara

(Series 16, Episodes 13-16)

Summary: Whilst the Doctor goes fishing, Romana displays a complete lack of understanding of the rules of Doctor Who.  Count Grendel confuses ‘sweeping off your feet’ with kidnapping and the denouement is a very long sword fight after which Grendel just…swims away?  Reynart and Strella are reunited, but poor old K9 is left floating in the moat.

Watch it because: Swash-buckling androids…only in Doctor Who.

Original Air Date: 25 November – 16 December 1978.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Mary Tamm) & K9 Mk II (John Leeson).

Writer: David Fisher.

Director: Michael Hayes.

Producer: Graham Williams.

The Stones of Blood

(Series 16, Episodes 9-12)

Summary: Ooh, I do love a good cult, with bonus flames and chanting and stone circles, but those poor hapless campers have clearly never read the rules about camping in horror films.  It all goes a bit Hitchcock with the crows, the Doctor is attacked by creepy walking stones and the Megara are massive pedants.  And goodness me, three intelligent women have a conversation!

Watch it because: “Doctor!  In the cause of science, I think it our duty to capture that creature!”

Original Air Date: 28 October – 18 November 1978.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Mary Tamm) & K9 Mk II (John Leeson).

Writer: David Fisher.

Director: Darrol Blake.

Producer: Graham Williams.

The Pirate Planet

(Series 16, Episodes 5-8)

Summary: There’s a neat little twist in the tail in this story of planet pillaging and a whole lot of LOL too.  The Doctor looks a bit peaky, Romana starts to show off her skills and K9 engages in a battle with a robot parrot.  After the reign of Queen Xanxia is spectacularly ended, the second part of the key to time is retrieved and onwards we go.

Watch it because: Check the writing credit.

Original Air Date: 30 September – 21 October 1978.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Mary Tamm) & K9 Mk II (John Leeson).

Writer: Douglas Adams.

Director: Pennant Roberts.

Producer: Graham Williams.

The Ribos Operation

(Series 16, Episode 1-4)

Summary: The quest for the story arc begins.  Enter Romana I and K9 II.  If you ask me, the Doctor is all too happy to accept the instructions of an absinthe-swilling cowboy and take his word for it that he’s the good guy just because he’s wearing white.  The Doctor and Romana arrive on Ribos to collect the first segment of the key to time but, for reasons best known to the Doctor, become embroiled in the plans of two con artists with fake accents who seem to be able to walk in and out of a heavily guarded castle with ease.  Everyone has confusingly similar moustaches and furry hats, K9 becomes the dog-ex-machina and the Doctor plays a mean swappiddy-doo with an explosive.

Watch it because: Poor, put-upon Unstoffe.  It’s never fun being the one with all the emotional investment in a relationship.

Original Air Date: 2 – 23 September 1978.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Romana (Mary Tamm) & K9 Mk II (John Leeson).

Writer: “David Agnew” (Graham Williams & Anthony Read).

Director: Gerald Blake.

Producer: Graham Williams.

The Invasion of Time

(Series 15, Episodes 21-26)

Summary: You know, our Earth religions could learn a thing or two about pomp and circumstance from the Time Lords, who seem to have now formed into coloured teams.  The Doctor goes bonkers, K9 gets his sass on and everyone is looking for a key whilst ineffectually battering at doors. (Side note: I kind of love how refreshingly open Castellan Kelner is about his obsequiousness.)  Things get really exciting when the Doctor returns to normal and the Sontarans turn up to chase him around the interior of the TARDIS.  In the end, the Sontarans are defeated by a Magic Time Gun and poor Leela gets married off to man who has more chemistry with K9 than with her.

Watch it because: Leela’s knife throw into the probic vent.  Ah, Leela.  You shall be missed - questionable costume decisions and all.

Original Air Date: 4 February – 11 March 1978.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Leela (Louise Jameson) & K9 Mk I (John Leeson).

Writer: “David Agnew” (Graham Williams & Anthony Read).

Director: Gerald Blake.

Producer: Graham Williams.

Underworld

(Series 15, Episodes 17-20)

Summary: Let the sky falllll!  Are you sure you’re not in the Matrix?  ‘Cause those tunnels don’t look real to me…  The Tardis materialises on a Minyan spaceship which is off on a quest to find another spaceship full of missing race banks, after the Time Lords meddled in their society, leading them to destroy their home planet in an all-consuming civil war.  Turns out, the missing Minyans are in a bit of a pickle, enslaved by a sentient computer to dig rocks in underground tunnels.  The Doctor confronts the computer, steals the race banks and makes his escape.  And in the end, sometimes two cigar-shaped bombs are just two cigar-shaped bombs.

Watch it because: The music when they’re floating is just delightful.

Original Air Date: 7 – 28 January 1978.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Leela (Louise Jameson) & K9 Mk I (John Leeson).

Writer: Bob Baker & Dave Martin.

Director: Norman Stewart.

Producer: Graham Williams.

The Sun Makers

(Series 15, Episodes 13-16)

Summary: The Doctor and Leela arrive on Pluto in the far future; a planet where fake suns have been implanted in the sky, people are taxed to breaking point (leading, of course, to many taxing puns) and the government pump fear-inducing drugs into the air in order to control the population.  The Doctor wastes no time in stirring up a revolution, Leela nearly gets steamed, Gatherer Hade meets a rather untimely end and the Collector turns out to be Flubber in disguise.

Watch it because: Cordo’s wonderfully innocent excitement at the success of the revolution.

Original Air Date: 26 November – 17 December 1977.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Leela (Louise Jameson) & K9 Mk I (John Leeson).

Writer: Robert Holmes.

Director: Pennant Roberts.

Producer: Graham Williams.

Image of the Fendahl

(Series 15, Episodes 9-12)

Summary: When archaeologists go bad…they fondle glowing skulls and start bonkers cults who dress in monks’ habits.  The Doctor resembles Orinoco the Womble more and more every day as he and Leela attempt to visit the home of the Fendahleen only to find the Time Lords have stuck it in an inaccessible time loop.  Back on earth, the Doctor, Leela, a witch and her grandson defeat a serpent that may or may not have been made in a primary school art lesson.

Watch it because: Just lob some salt at it!

Original Air Date: 29 October – 19 November 1977.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Leela (Louise Jameson).

Writer: Chris Boucher.

Director: George Spenton-Foster.

Producer: Graham Williams.

The Invisible Enemy

(Series 15, Episodes 5-8)

Summary: Not wanting to nit-pick, but the enemy is pretty visible, tbh – it’s a giant asthmatic prawn on wheels.  Teeny tiny Doctor and Leela clones play a game of cat and mouse inside the Doctor’s brain and people start shooting lightning bolts from their crazy silver eyebrows.  The Doctor tries to come up with a clever solution but it all goes wrong so he just blows everything up (as Leela suggested in the first place).

Watch it because: “K9 is my best friend!”

Original Air Date: 3 – 24 September 1977.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Leela (Louise Jameson) & K9 Mk I (John Leeson).

Writer: Bob Baker and Dave Martin.

Director: Derrick Goodwin.

Producer: Graham Williams.

Horror of Fang Rock

(Series 15, Episodes 1-4)

Summary: There’s a spot of nominative determination going on at Fang Rock, where a boatload of snobs get marooned in a lighthouse and menaced by a fluorescent green jellyfish with a talent for electrocution.  Bottom line: everyone dies and Leela’s eyes change colour.

Watch it because: Leela kicks some serious ass.

Original Air Date: 3 – 24 September 1977.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Leela (Louise Jameson)

Writer: Terrance Dicks.

Director: Paddy Russell.

Producer: Graham Williams.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang

(Series 14, Episodes 21-26)

Summary: Finally, Leela looks warm whilst the Doctor looks like Sherlock Holmes as they visit smoggy Victorian for the story of the Phantom of the Palace Theatre.  The ventriloquist’s dummy is creepy as hell but unfortunately the giant rat is about as scary as a Spielberg shark.  It’s all a little uncomfortably racist, but if you can get past that, a pretty atmospheric story.  Beware the eyes of the dragon!

Watch it because: Jago & Litefoot – what a pair.

Original Air Date: 26 February – 2 April 1977.

Doctor: Tom Baker.

Companions: Leela (Louise Jameson)

Writer: Robert Holmes.

Director: David Maloney.

Producer: Philip Hinchcliffe.