Doctor Who: The Twin Dilemma

"Something's wrong.....something's very wrong.  Oh, no, has it come to that?  Regenerate...yet.....unregenerate.  I am a living peril to the universe!!!!"   --Colin Baker as the new Doctor.
 

And thus, we come to what many Doctor Who fans refer to as "The End."

Right after "The Caves of Androzani," there was still one more story left to finish out the twentieth season of Doctor Who.  In order to give the fans a taste of what was coming (in the form of the New Doctor), the producers decided to air "The Twin Dilemma" and give Colin Baker an early headstart to his reign of Doctor Who.

This is probably the single biggest mistake they ever made.

Six stories later the show would be on hiatus for a year and a half while the BBC decided if "Who" had enough life in it anymore.  Colin Baker was panned as "The Worst Doctor" due to his changing the Doctor from Davison's "Child of the Universe" to "Unstable."  Of course, the unstable wasn't exactly a new change; throughout the show's history, the Doctor had always been portrayed as fussy, rude, and sometimes downright mean with an undercurrent of gentleness and wonder that made the show truly great.   But, thanks to giving Who fans time to boil over this new, unstable Doctor only festered hate and contempt rather than curiosity of where Colin would take the Doctor next.

So, where did it begin?  "The Twin Dilemma," a story quite unfairly given the 'worst story EVER' treatment by a majority of Doctor Who fans (those, apparently, who missed "Battlefield" or various other abominable Sylvester McCoy stories).

The story begins with two twin supergeniuses being kidnapped by a human scientist who is really the lackey to a race of giant gastropods (snails), kicking the series from the darkness of "Caves of Androzani" and back into the familiar template of Doctor Who-ism of goofy but interesting monsters.   Meanwhile, back on the TARDIS, the Doctor is up and moving and scaring the hell out of his recent companion, Peri, who has only known the Doctor for less than a week.  As the Doctor explains how regeneration works, he has a momentary fit of madness, which reduces him to a hysterical laughter.

The ship of which the human lackey alludes Earth Forces trying to retrieve the twins, who are revealed to have enough knowledge to be of great use to anybody outside force.  Of course, I suppose Earth didn't think anyone would try to steal them.   Oh well.  Then, the Earth craft in pursuit is hit and all that is left is radio static.    The Earth Directorate then decides to wait or whatever until something happens.  This is also the last we hear from them in the story.

Back in the TARDIS, we see that the Doctor has changed his appearance from the modest Cricket outfit the Fifth Doctor preferred to....well....something extremely tacky.  It should be noted that one of the appealing things of Who History is that the Doctor has no fashion sense.  To be honest, this man gets his wardrobe from the Salvation Army.   But this outfit...well......when seen at first, it's quite jolting....the first in many clues that the Doctor is not quite the same...from ANY of his regenerations.

After Peri laughs at him, the Doctor uncharacteristically makes fun of her new dress and goes about setting the coordinates for another planet for some relaxation to adjust to his new form when suddenly, for no real reason, he attacks Peri and nearly strangles her.  To newbies of Whoism, this ISN'T something that happens with regenerations AT ALL.   After glimpsing himself in a mirror that Peri is holding when she is being strangled (?), the Doctor realizes that something is horribly wrong...hence the quote at the top of the page.....and showing his other character flaw of overreacting.  Vowing to spend eons as a hermit to repent (and keeping Peri as his disciple), he takes off to Titan 3 for absolute solitude, making the TARDIS shudder as it takes off.

Meanwhile, it is revealed that the Professor's hideout (he's the lackey to the giant Gastropods) is on TITAN 3!!  Hence, the backstory.  So, as the professor tries to make the twins work for him.  Outside, the Doctor and Peri go outside to explore a strange dome that doesn't fit into the jagged landscape of the asteroid Titan 3.   On their first try to go the dome, they find the remains of the Earth Protectorate spaceship and it's only survivor, Hugo.  Taking him inside, they figure out a way to get inside the dome while Hugo reawakens and holds them hostage.  However, he collapses again and the Doctor fixes him up reluctantly ("Well, he tried to kill us!!").  While it's a point that I'm sure any incarnation of the Doctor would make, it is shown as YET another way this doctor is different.   Then they disarm Hugo's gun, hide the battery pack in the wardrobe room, and go the dome again to find a way in.

Sneaking in through a vent, they are kidnapped by the Professor's henchmen (who remind me of Beast-Man from "Masters of the Universe" fame with an outfit from the original "Outer Limits").  Here, the Doctor heroically shoves Peri in front of him and begs for them not to harm him.   Yes, this is another effect of the regeneration.  During the first story of the new Doctor's reign, the Doctor always behaves strangely until he 'settles' into his new form in time for the second story.  But this here is quite new...I could explain is as Colin Baker showing that behind the Doctor's veneer of security lays a sense of fear...but however, this is just too out of character and is more funny than anything.  But it does lead credence that the Doctor has changed quite a bit.

Inside the dome, the Doctor finally has a memory, in which he recognizes the Professor as a fellow the fellow Time Lord Azrael.  Azrael, is is revealed, is a ruler of a planet.  But why is he doing this?  Asrael doesn't explain, but locks the two inside his base so he can have time to escape.  However, one of his henchmen sets a bomb without Asrael's knowledge.  As Asrael finds his out after his ship takes off, the Doctor jury-rigs a time device to catapult them back in time to the TARDIS (don't ask me how, it's a Doctor Who plothole).  He sends through Peri first successfully, then sends himself back....a bit too far, which leads us to the second cliffhanger as Peri watches the dome explode.

But, the Doctor does make it after sending himself too far back in time (by a matter of minutes) and reappears, ready to go to Asrael's world..or not.  While Peri and Hugo convince him to save the twins, the Doctor still is afraid and doesn't want to get involved.  Hugo threatens the Doctor, who relents but says that he will only take them there, then they are on their own.  Materializing on the surface of the planet, the Doctor is shocked to see that the once lush and green planet is now barren.  Examining a slime trail leads the Doctor to realize that they are dealing with a (unnamed) race of Gastropods who take over worlds and destroy them for food.    The Doctor then materializes in the basement of the main castle of the planet and, having another one of his fits, runs off and leaves Peri and Hugo in the larch.  They are then captured and imprisoned.

The Doctor, too, is imprisoned and is sent to the holding cell with Asrael and the twins and learns that Peri is to be captured and going to be executed.  After a long bout of guilt, the Doctor learns that Asrael is only helping Nestor (the leader of the Gastropods) so he can save his planet from destruction.  Nestor's plot is to throw a moon full of Gastropod eggs into the sun, so the heat-resistant eggs can fly out into space in every direction and spread their destruction.  The Doctor and Asrael then confront Nestor.  Nestor threatens to destroy their minds but the Doctor says he can withstand it despite his weakened state (displaying, once again, his foolhardy attitude).  Nestor complies, then invades the old Asrael's mind....Asrael, having the mental power of a Time Lord, holds Nestor's spirit inside while the Doctor disintegrates Nestor's body with a fancy salt solution.   Asrael, already through all of his twelve regenerations, regenerates one last time, destroying Nestor's mind as well as his own..and dies in the Doctor's arms, in probably one of the most touching moments in Doctor Who history (to be honest).

Back at the TARDIS, The Doctor meets Peri and Hugo while Asrael's people revolt against their oppressors.  As the Gastropods retreat, Hugo volunteers to take Asrael's place.  The Doctor and Peri take the twins back to Earth (and hopefully to tell them about Hugo and how he lived and everything).  As Peri chides the Doctor for being so rude to Hugo, the Doctor informs her that he is an alien, with different customs and personalities despite his human appearance (and dress sense).  Finally, he reassures her that he is now stable, and he's the Doctor..."Whether you like it...or not"  with a knowingly smile that tells us, the viewers, that despite it all...he is still the Doctor.

But, despite this, most people are not fans of Colin Baker and look at the rest of his work on Doctor Who as just more violent claptrap that signaled the end.  While the Twenty-First season was vastly different than the rest of Who History (instead of having four half-hour episodes, the twenty-first season had two hour long episodes thanks to the BBC) and a bit more violent in content thanks to more involving and satirical stories.  Also, Colin did mellow his character gently through his two seasons as the Doctor and gave the character more range than any other actor had.  To be honest, I didn't like him at first, but I wasn't supposed to.  After watching all the episodes I could, I realized that I started too very much.  It was a character study to a character who, despite his knowledge and extensive past, never really had a past.  And it's a damn shame that Colin wasn't given more room than he was.  But still, those two seasons are some of the best Who ever made.

The story itself, if you take away the regeneration, is substandard but supposed to be.  The real focus is the new Doctor, and it succeeds on that.  The full range of the Doctor's emotions are exposed, and brings a human frailty to the Doctor's character that one always senses but never really realizes.   All and all, the only mistake was letting this story end a season after a fantastic story instead of letting it lead one.

RATING:  My HIGHEST recommendation, for die-hard Who fans only.  If you want a beginning Sixth Doctor story, try "The Two Doctors" or "Vengeance on Varos."