Escape To Danger No.44

Two things I have neglected to do so far in this thread are to celebrate the Proper Who Anniversary, and do a Sylvester McCoy story.
 

The latter has been something I've been wondering how to approach, as anything shown after "The Trial of a Time Lord" isn't something I experienced first-hand at the time. (In fact, due to the inefficiencies of the subscription department of Marvel UK, I'd even stopped purchasing DWM before Season 23 aired).

Anyway, despite a valiant attempt at gathering my thoughts on "Silver Nemesis" in time for today's entry, I hit an unexpected snag; that the overlap between this thread and Publicity Shots From Hell was so great for that 25th Anniversary tale, that I found I needed a bit of a think before I used a lot of photos that I need to take the piss out of later.

Oh well, maybe next year.

Meanwhile, let's remind ourselves of the pumped-up, thrill-packed conclusion to the twentieth anniversary season, "The King's Demons"...
 

Season Twenty of course was the season that accidentally ended up promoting itself as having every story feature an element from the Doctor's past. So after the previous three stories that cheated and featured the same element again and again and again, JN-T pulled a fast one and did something totally unexpected.

 

The now annual return of the Master was heralded by no less than two anagrams for the benefit of the Radio Times, so no-one saw that coming, then.

 

 

Gerald Flood there, just about to sing in praise of total war (against the Saracen we abhor).

According to Wikipedia (so it must be true), Flood died a penniless alcoholic. One assumes that his Arab-baiting theme tune never achieved much chart success, which was an odd oversight on behalf of the remorselessly grinding JN-T merchandising machine...
 

 

Despite my earlier sarcasm regarding "The King's Demons" being a weak finale to a patchy season, fairness dictates that I must concede that this state of affairs was entirely accidental. Intended season closer, Eric Saward's "Warhead" script, was postponed until the following year due to industrial action, and it is anybody's guess as to whether "Resurrection of the Daleks" (as that story became) benefitted in any way from the extra development time afforded to it.

(Hint; it probably didn't).
 

 

While Season Nineteen's two-parter (also by Terence "Survivors" Dudley, interestingly) was the first "genuine" historical story since 1966/67's "The Highlanders", any chances of a repeat scenario were well and truly scuppered by the appearance of the chap above. (A Dio fan, looking at that right hand).

Kamelion was, at the time of his introduction as a new companion, pretty bloody amazing. As a prop it was spectacular, albeit in a rather sedentary way. As an actual companion... well, history shows what happened (or rather didn't) in that regard.

Excusing all the hoo-hah of "The Five Doctors", I do admit I viewed the initial transmissions of "Warriors of the Deep" and "The Awakening" expecting him to make some sort of appearance...
 

 

Ah. obligatory blonde young eye candy and possible torture device anachronism together at last. Mark Strickson gets some good panicky acting in though, and it's a nice change to be able to watch Turlough and not expect him to be up to no good.

 

 

As Terence Dudley historical two-parters go, Serial 6J isn't an unmitigated disaster, it's all just a little underwhelming. Many reviewers have noted that the Master's plan is almost embarrassingly small scale, but post-"Logopolis" you'd be hard-pressed to find an Eighties Master story that wasn't...