The Deadly Assassin

Nice Collar Doc

Well, well, well here's a turn up for the books. This is something of a surprise. It isn't quite as good as I remember it. In fact, I'd say this is the first disappointment since Tomb of the Cybermen in my journey through broadcast Doctor Who.

I should say that it isn't terrible. It's just a meh story. All mouth and no trousers.

I've been trying to put my finger on why. Perhaps it is that Tom on his own doesn't quite work. The main villain and he are kept separate until virtually the end of the story, instead, he gets to fence with Chancellor Goth for most of it. It's an oddly cold story.

This is only the second time we've seen Gallifrey. In The War Games it seems a sterile, clean sort of place. They'd be no dust here. But this Gallifrey is less impressive, more of a culture in decline than the pinnacle of galactic civilization.

I think it is fine to reflect its staid dullness by casting older actors in the majority of the roles and the Doctor's comments about their technology not being quite as sophisticated as they think it reflects that. This is a planet in stagnation and you can understand why the Doctor (and others) wanted to flee the place and do something more fun instead.

It takes this and Invasion of Time before the Time Lord's change their interior design to something more akin to an office in an industrial estate somewhere in the home counties. Now though the design is good. It's ill-lite, sea green and tacky. However, the Time Lord costumes, with the skullcaps and collars, look fantastic. When they get dressed up it is a reminder of past glories.

What I do take exception to is the claim that they'd have lost their knowledge of a Black Hole underneath the Panopticon. To lose understanding of some things is one of the sadnesses of history but to lose a Black Hole smacks of deliberate stupidity. It is as if Holmes wanted to take the Time Lords down several pegs. After all, it is this story that gives us the arbitrary twelve regenerations issue, as well as Rassilon and his various knick-knacks.

Then there's also Runcible (Hugh Walters). I don't mind the performance it is just the character seems a tad unnecessary. Who is he broadcasting to and why? I also think Robert Holmes could have stretched himself a bit beyond C.I.A. as the initials of the Time Lord's Celestial Intervention Agency. It's a tad unsubtle. Why not just the Intervention Agency.*

The scenes in the Matrix are tense enough and notably odd, although quite why Goth needs to be so theatrical about the process is beyond me. If I were the Master I'd be telling him to get on with it and stop faffing about with the clowns and biplanes.

Ah, Goth. I've no idea why the production team went to such lengths to disguise Goth. Much as I like Bernard Horsfall's performance it is pretty obviously him, despite the croaky whisper. A croaky whisper he takes on board when he's talking to the Master who ALREADY KNOWS WHO HE IS! Why is he bothering then? Why?! So the big reveal in Episode Three is a bit of a damp squib.

By that point, you are also starting to ask questions about why the Master drags the Doctor into this in the first place, except to make his own life difficult. Wouldn't revenge on the Doctor be easier once you've seized control of Gallifrey? As I've said before its no wonder the Master gets through his regenerations so quickly when he's this idiotic.

However, the Master's appearance is brilliantly horrible and borders on the genuinely horrific. I'm surprised they managed to sneak this past a tea time audience. It's no wonder Mary Whitehouse got her knickers in a twist. It's not just the look, it's the healing scab stickiness of the look. It's not nice. Peter Pratt does an excellent job, trapped behind a mask to use his voice to give life to the performance. This is definitely a Master on the edge of a nervous breakdown. There's certainly more connection between the skull-faced Master of this story and John Simm's new series lunatic than between Simm and Delgado or Ainley.

The Master Not Looking His Best

In the end though this story isn't quite up to the standards of my memory. Yes, it has some strengths but also lots of niggling weaknesses. In the end, it is fun but not the stone-cold Classic I remember it to be - or that fan lore might lead us to believe.

It does define the Time Lords and Gallifrey for the foreseeable future.


*I quite like the idea of the Intervention Agency. I may run off and play with it.