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.