| THE VISITATION by Eric Saward |
| Story 119 Synopsis: The Doctor fails again at returning Tegan home. The TARDIS lands 300 years early. Exploring, they run into an actor, Richard Mace, and evidence of alien exploration. Also, there is a plague afoot. Visiting a squire's house, the Doctor finds more clues. A cellar contains alien artifacts, and they are all attacked by an android dressed as Death. Tegan and Adric are captured, but the Doctor, Nyssa and Mace escape. They find a spaceship outside, and the Doctor soon deduces the presence of Terileptils. Adric manages to escape, whilst Tegan is placed under mind control. Nyssa is sent back to the TARDIS to build a sonic disruptor that would put paid to the android. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Mace narrowly avoid execution. The Doctor finally meets the Terileptil leader, to find he is a political prisoner, plotting to destroy all human life, and nick off with the TARDIS. Mace is placed under the same mind control, and he and Tegan keep guard on the handcuffed Doctor. The Doctor breaks their conditioning, and uses Mace's flintlock to break them out of their cell. The Terileptil leader has gone to London with samples of plague, with rats in cages to spread the contagion. Nyssa manages to destroy the android, and Adric is able to pilot the TARDIS to pick up the Doctor, Tegan and Mace. The Doctor tracks the Terileptil base, and goes to confront the Terileptils. In the ensuing chaos, a fire is started. The Doctor orders the plague to be thrown into the fire, which also kills the Terileptils. Mace remains to fight the fire. In the TARDIS, the Doctor says the fire should run its course. A sign shows the fire is in Pudding Lane. |
| Review:- A remarkable story, this, combining alien invasion with a specific historical setting. This story has apparently received largely positive feedback over the years, which some put down to the large amount of location filming. Whilst I don't entirely buy this, there is a lot to like here. Firstly, the Terileptils. They look interesting, there's only 3 of them, all different colours, and they seem quite smart. The chatty one with his missing eye becomes profoundly interesting once we learn why his face appears so odd - torture victims are something that the wider world has come to appreciate and abhor all the more since the time when this was made. Tegan gets some variable work to do, although the initial bleating about the failure to get home doesn't endear her one jot. Adric gets to sprain his ankle, pilot the TARDIS, and keep Mace happy, so...hmm. Nyssa gets rather sidetracked by the need to build an anti-android device, which is reliant on the android coming to the TARDIS. Perhaps like getting the Trojans to come to the Greek camp to obligingly get slaughtered. The Doctor gets a pretty good time, quite dynamic, shooting doors, generally trying to boss everyone around with a sense of urgency. That this story reminds me of Terror Of The Zygons highlights the subtle change in Doctors, as this one is sympathetic to the few members of a race plotting world conquest, whereas his predecessor thought the Zygons pretty weak. The highlight of the whole story has to be Richard Mace. The late Michael Robbins wins over the audience within a few minutes, and is thankfully part of the action all the way up until the final scene. It is well known that Eric Saward was reusing a character he had previously written in a few radio plays (and speaking as a small-time writer myself, why not?), but I hope he got as much pleasure out of seeing the wonderful way the part is played. With so few other characters to meet, Mace gets plenty of space to be smart and charming. I woudn't say I am convinced he is an actor, but I don't care. It also highlights the point I got from watching Kinda, that the Doctor (or this Doctor) works much better with adults to talk to, than with his companions. Overall, it's a fairly slight story, but all the more watchable for that. At least you can tell what's going on. It also deserves merit for not over-egging the big finale in advance. |
| Disclaimer: I've seen the video, and probably read the book. |