Timelash

 In a nihilistic season packed with implied or actual violence, `Timelash` stands apart as being a more traditional Doctor Who story. A regular near the foot of fan votes it seems to be written off as a bit of a mess. Yet like such stories there is something of worth if you watch it with an open mind and try to forget all the brickbats that have been hurled towards it. With Pennant Roberts again lumbered with bright sets (as he was in `Warriors of the Deep`) the story is already hamstrung while Glen McCoy’s script feels like it needed more work and production values are not the best. There are interesting concepts within it but the resulting production doesn’t always do justice to them. I’ve heard `Timelash` summarised variously yet almost always in the negative but I would say its middling. I don’t even think it’s the worst story of this season but I would agree that it’s presentation does not help its case.

 

Attack of the Cybermen

John Nathan Turner was right when he claimed that “the memory cheats”. At the time he was referring to Sixties and earlier Seventies Doctor Who against which many of his stories were being unfavourably compared. Now that this era is of an even older vintage watching a story like this shows how accurate he was. I’ve always held `` `Attack of the Cybermen` as an example of how terrible the show was at this point. One moment in particular is stuck in my memory when a brick wall sweeps to one side to reveal a brightly lit group of Cybermen like some tv variety show introduction. In fact, this occurs sooner in the story than I recalled and the only reason the light seems so bright is because we’ve spent the previous few minutes mooching around in semi darkness. The story is full of little moments like this which I’d forgotten or mis remembered because it must be more than twenty years since I’ve seen it. That is not to wholly redeem the story which is rather messy at times, but does show its not as poor as I thought it was.