When I posted on Planet of the Spiders, I said who great the title sequence was for Pertwee's last series and it got better when Tom Baker came along. Well, judge for yourselves.
Well, I like it!
Anyway, what of The Seeds of Doom? I can sum it up in one word: brilliant! Everything in this story works.
Where do we start? Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen were in their stride by this stage. They were always good in any story of this era, but if you combine a really good script and good direction (Robert Banks Stewart and Douglas Camfield respectively - arguably one of the best, if not the best, directors ever employed on the show) with actors of their talents you're in for a cracker. The guest cast are all impressive with Tony Beckley, John Challis and Sylvia Colderidge as the stand outs.
It's an example of Doctor Who at it's best. What more can I say?
Revenge of the Cybermen is a bit an oddity. At a time when Phillip Hincliffe and Robert Holmes were setting out their version of Doctor Who (think Genesis of the Daleks which was the story that preceded it), this story feels like a throwback to the 1960s. Which isn't surprising as Gerry David hadn't been involved with the programme since the Patrick Troughton days. It's probably;y the weakest story of Season 12, but that doesn't mean it's not entertaining. Tom Baker was starting to hit his stride as the Fourth Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen is as good as ever. The guest cast are pretty good and, despite was Phillip Hinchliffe says in the documentary, the Vogans are well realised.
I have to admit I approached Silver Nemesis with some dread. My memory of it being 90 minutes of poorly written drivel. While it;s not drivel, it is poorly written with a number of set pieces in search of a plot. Sylvester and Sophie are good, and Fiona Walker's Lady Peinforte and Gerard Murphy's Richard make a good double act. The production standards are high, but the story is a mess (and it's a bit of a worry that over 20 minutes of footage was cut from the final product - enough for another episode). Definitely the weakest story of Season 25 (and of this box set).
First thing that has to be said is how good was the title sequence from Pertwee's final season of Doctor Who?
And, of course, it got even better the next series with the TARDIS finally making an appearance in the titles, but more on that later.
Planet of the Spiders brings the curtain down on the Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who. Some commentators have said, perhaps somewhat cruelly, that the serails production code - ZZZ - is appropriate. I wouldn't go that far, but I would suggest that it suffers from the same problem most six parters suffer from: it's about two episodes too long. Also, I think Barry Letts was trying to be George Lucas about 25 years too early with the amount of blue screen in the show. Metebelis III looked really convincing when we briefly saw it in The Green Death twelve months earlier, but here you can tell it's a studio set. And the spider's citadel is badly let down by bad lighting (a fault designer Rochelle Selwyn admits to on the documentary accompanying the disc. She did make her thoughts known to the lighting director which was subsequently ignored to the productions detriment).
However, there are some good things. All the UNIT crew are as good as ever, with Richard Franklin being the stand out. John Kane's sensitive portrayal of Tommy is excellent along with Kevin Lindsay as the gleeful Cho-je and George Cormack as the Doctor's old mentor K'anpo. The spiders themselves are well realized with the Great One being very convincing (a great example of when Chromakey does work!) with great vocal talents from Ysanne Churchman, Kismet Delgado and Maureen Morris. Otherwise the rest of the cast are forgettable.
But this is Pertwee's swansong and I have to say he isn't too bad. His final scene is very moving, especially if one think of recent events in the real world with the sad passings of both Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen.
But the regeneration itself is rubbish!
So, Planet of the Spiders: not as bad as most people suggest, but not great either. But the series best years were just around the corner.
