| LOGOPOLIS by Christopher H Bidmead |
| Story 115 Synopsis: The Doctor decides that now, of all times, would be a good chance to have a go at fixing the Chameleon Circuit. To do a proper job of this, he materialises the TARDIS around an actual Earth police box, on the Barnet bypass. Meanwhile, air hostess Tegan Jovanka is on her way to catch a flight. She has her Aunt Vanessa with her, but tyre trouble forces them off the road. And into a bypass. Meanwhile, the Master is seemingly ahead of the Doctor, for he has occupied the Barnet police box with his TARDIS. This allows him to put his TARDIS inside the Doctor's TARDIS. Anyway, the Doctor finds that when he enters the police box, he arrives on the bypass, where a couple of policemen are investiagting a curious double-murder. Adric creates a diversion, and the Doctor takes the TARDIS away, and the Master's TARDIS too. Not only that, Tegan has been lured on board by the Master. The Doctor decides to flush out the Master's TARDIS by landing in the Thames, and holding on tight when the doors open. This fails too. The Doctor meets a pale shadowy figure, whom Adric believes is the Master. The Doctor takes everyone to Logopolis. Since he has the police box statistics, he can still get them to repair the chameleon circuit. But there, the Master puts a spanner in the works, and whilst trying out a new program, the TARDIS shrinks. Meanwhile, Nyssa turns up from nowhere. The fault in the Logopolitan program is discovered, and the TARDIS restored. The Master uses Nyssa's belief that he is her father against her. But his meddling in Logopolis seems to be his last mistake. The planet was keeping the Universe intact through the operation of Charged Vacuum Emboitements (CVEs). Now, all is turning to dust, and the Universe will go too. Except the Master has a plan - but he will need the Doctor's help. Reluctantly, the Doctor agrees. Nyssa and Adric are taken to Earth by the shadowy man in the TARDIS. Tegan and the Doctor have to hitch a ride with the Master. Logopolis dies. As does Traken, for that matter. The Master's plan works, but he tries to hold the Universe to ransom. The Doctor pulls out a cable, but falls from the Jodrell bank observatory. On the ground, he regenerates. The Master, meanwhile, escapes... |
| Review:- Ah yes, Logopolis. Tom Baker's swansong as the Doctor, after 7 years of travelling through time. I don't know why I'm reviewing this next. I wonder if it's at all to do with a rather melancholic mood I've had lately. I find that sometimes dramas about death to be the greatest, the most serious. Logopolis is about an end. A big end, no less. I have only watched this once, as I recall, when a friend lent me his copy of the video (no money changed hands, no copies were made). It is a beautiful, timely piece and much of its charm come from the use of one-offs. Let's start with the Barnet bypass. Possibly the most self-effacing location in DW history (how many other shows, big or small, could get mileage out of a bypass?), this has much that is poetic. It's so small, it could be staged, but the constant traffic belies that it is a real locale. This creates the effect that DW can happen anywhere, and not just where it appears convenient. I watch the end of part 1, with the Watcher on the other side of the motorway(is it?), and I feel that this is real. I could believe this happened. Then we have the Thames distraction. Yes, flushing out the Master must stand as the silliest idea anyone has ever had in DW (imagine Season 9 - Pertwee threatening Delgado with the fear of water). However, the locations just make it work. When the Doctor goes off for his chat, the script gives you all the rope you need. What the Doctor says to the Watcher is never let on, so it could be anything, and he could be anyone. A lesson in drawing your own conclusions. Nyssa'a arrival in the story is unexpected, and really could do with a little more, but she makes up for it in part 3. I cannot believe that JNT (rest his soul) honestly put Tegan (Jovanka) on a form, thinking that Jovanka would have been a believable name. It's scarcely a believable surname, so "the Doctor, Nyssa, Adric and Jovanka" doesn't bear thinking about. The CVEs and the whole Logopolitan society are reasonable science that is easily grasped. Once things start going wrong, boy, do they go wrong! The Master is a reasonable and ruthless chancer, who turns mishaps to his own benefit. Yes, there is a heckuva lot of padding, and shares a plotting coincidence with Castrovalva and Earthshock. But the emotion wins me over. As the Doctor makes his final effort to save the Universe, he is pushed into one predicament too many. It was suggested in DWM's Tom Baker special, by Gary Gillatt, no less, that when the Doctor is hanging on to the cable, he could easily have climbed to safety - but he lets go. I feel that this is just crap, and he falls because gravity is too powerful a force to be reckoned with. Sad. I like this story. |
| Disclaimer: I've seen the video, and read the book. |