#time warrior

Hey gang! It's Andy Larson back with another installment of my ongoing "Best Doctor Who stories" series of monthly articles. Thus far, I haven't really heard from much of the Doctor Who faithful out there in terms of whether they like my previous lists or not.

Perhaps I should have continued my membership to some of those online Doctor Who message boards such as Outpost Galifrey which I frequented in years past in hopes of getting some cheap plugs in. That's always the problem with articles, getting the word out among those that would care enough to read it that they exist without stooping to spam like link trolling on message boards.

Anyways, as last month's entry talked about one of my favorite Doctors of all time in Patrick Troughton, conversely this month's article discusses one of my least favorite in Jon Pertwee, The Third Doctor.    

Although I know I'm sure to get some flack from some quarters of Doctor Who fans for my dislike of the dandy dressed James Bond-esque Venusian Aikido master, but sincerely, there has always been something I disliked about the Third Doctor. He seemed to straight laced. Too authoritarian. Too square peg in a round hole for me, like someone's Dad who was trying to act all hip and cool, when in fact he was still just a Dad at heart. And yes, this was the era that really started to elevate Doctor Who as more than just a silly kids show and helped establish concepts that would later go on to be extremely important to the mythology as a whole, such as the introduction of the Master as the traditional "dark side" version of our hero.

But at the end of the day, this is era that seems to be the most campy to me and as a result, the era that really hasn't aged that well. Well that is except for the glorious Season 7 which is honestly the only group of stories from this era that I rewatch regularly.

Yep, I love me some Third Doctor and Liz Shaw adventures for sure.    

Although some might feel that the Third Doctor and his companion Liz Shaw, had somewhat of an icy relationship at times, I would argue that their relationship seemed the most "real" to me. Unlike the somewhat annoying Jo Grant, whose only job seemed to be to stand around looking blonde and screaming, Liz Shaw was an accomplished scientist in her own right. Although she may not have been as universally learned as the Doctor, she could still speak to him as an equal having intelligent discussions and helping him problem solve by coming up with her own unique solutions. It's very similar to the approach they would take with another of my favorite companions years later during the Tom Baker era when they teamed him with fellow Time Lord, Romana. I feel like when the Doctor is paired with someone that engages him intellectually, refuses to put up with his pseudo scientific jargon, and challenges him overall to just be a better scientist, then he has so much more of a deeper connection with that companion than what he would otherwise.

It becomes more of a partnership, something akin to a marriage, with true give and take and both people trying to be more complete as a result.

I mean, as I've done with previous entries, I wanted to include a scene from a Doctor Who story from this era that may not have made my list but I thought was still good. I've included the end of Doctor Who and the Silurians, because I feel this scene in the car does illustrate the "comfortable married couple" type chemistry the Third Doctor and Liz Shaw had.

Additionally, another reason I like that scene as well as all of season 7 is because of the complexity of the Doctor's relationship with UNIT as a military organization. He genuinely is in the right to be be disgusted by the bombing of the Siluarian hive by the members of the UNIT because they feared what would happen if they would not taken action. It does highlight the moral ambiguity of what we are supposed to think are the "good guys" in engaging in what boils down to cold blooded genocide, and challenges us as viewers. Simply put, Season 7 was very adult Doctor Who indeed.

The rest of this era...not so much. However, we'll get to that and more with our list of the Top 5 Doctor Who stories from the Third Doctor's Era starting now!  

5.) The Time Warrior

Meet Sarah Jane Smith.

One of the the most iconic, prolific, beloved companions in all Doctor Who history played by the late, great Elizabeth Sladen for over 40 years had her humble beginnings in this opening to the Third Doctor's final season.

Although she is mainly remembered for her time with Tom Baker's breakout Fourth Doctor era, she did have a handful of adventures with Jon before helping the show transition through the actor changing regeneration. And among those stories, The Time Warrior definitely ranks there among the best!

Written by Robert Holmes, arguably the best Doctor Who writer to ever script for the show, this tale introduces the squat troll like race of warrior clones known as the Sontarians for the first time, when a nasty customer named Linx crashes lands in the Middle Ages and uses primitive time travel tech to kidnap scientists from the 20th century to help repair his ship. Of course, to gain some measure of assistance, Linx joins forces with a blustering blowhard of a warlord named Irongron who is hell bent on raiding nearby castles in the kings absence in a greedy attempt to solidify his power. The Doctor is then sent by UNIT to investigate the disappearance of the scientists and tracks Linx down with Sarah Jane in tow, as like so many other companions, she stowed away in the Tardis after curiosity got the better of her.

From there it's a interesting Game of Thrones style romp without all the gore and bloodshed as the Doctor and Sarah join forces with a local kindly to a stop Linx from inadvertently changing human history by introducing firearms and robots to the medieval battlefield.

Although Liz Sladen plays the feminist card a little too hard in this first adventure, you can see her insanely good characterization shine through even from this story, making for one of the more enjoyable 3rd Doctor stories out there. Oh and did I mention Boba Fett is in this story? Or well the actor Jeremy Bullock who plays the archer, Hamm, in this story would later go on to be the most famous bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe!

  4.) Day of the Daleks (Special Edition)

Like all of my previous Top 5 Doctor Who lists, there has to be at least one entry which showcases the Doctor's true arch enemies in those pepper pot shaped robotic Nazi stand-ins known as the Daleks.

However, for many years, it was in fact difficult for me to list one from the Third Doctor era as being one of my favorites.

The Planet of the Daleks story from Season 10 is pretty much a less interesting retread of the original Dalek story from the William Hartnell era.

Then there's Death of the Daleks from Season 11 which is sort of a confused runaround featuring ugly gray slag heaps with the Daleks just shoehorned in for dramatic effect.

That leaves Day of the Daleks, which saw the return of these eye stalked tanks of death for the first time in 5 years, ever since they disappeared from TV screens at the end of the 1967 serial, Evil of the Daleks.

Originally, this story wasn't even supposed to have Daleks in it as writer Louis Marks initially submitted a Terminator-esque story about time traveling commandos coming back to commit an assassination of a major political figure to stop a dystopian future from occurring. But the Daleks were added in order to hook viewers following the Master's capture at the end of season 8, and despite only having 3 working Dalek props available, they pushed ahead with the story. Thus in the end we got a tale about how the Daleks enslaved Earth's future, and The Doctor and freedom fighters using time travel were attempting to halt that from ever happening in the first place. The results were somewhat mixed as the actual story is pretty damn good.

In fact, comic book creator, John Byrne, has stated in previous interviews that he unconsciously took the  plot for one of the greatest X-men stories ever with "Days of Future Past"  from the basic plot of Day of the Daleks. Plus later on when the current version of Doctor Who hit the airwaves with the overarching narrative of the Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks, this story seemed to carry additional weight as an narrative precursor to that inevitable battle between the two races. However, for years the production values of this story kept getting in the way of this being a truly great adventure. For example, it's hard not to notice the fact that they only had 3 Dalek props in most of the scenes, making it hard to take the Daleks seriously as a threat.

However, in 2011, the BBC released a DVD version of this story with all new CGI effects, which has really elevated this story significantly. I would highly recommend watching that version and that version alone, as it really does fix a lot of the technical issues with the story allowing the terrific narrative to shine through!

  3.) The Daemons

I feel like that if I had not included this particular story on my list of top Third Doctor stories, that I would have immediately lost all of my "street cred" with fellow Whovians throughout the world, just simply because it has become so iconic.

As I mentioned in my intro, the Third Doctor's era is one highlighted by 2 main things: His adventures helping UNIT and his battles with the Roger Delgado version of the Master. And the Daemons is pretty much the best example story wise of both.

In some ways a retelling of the classic BBC science fiction story, Quatermass and the Pit, the Doctor and UNIT are called investigate the excavation the infamous Devil's Hump, a bronze age Pagen burial site. However, the site actually is the resting place of the interstellar super being called Azal, a member of the Daemon race, who has been influencing humanity's evolutionary process in secret. His half man/half goat appearance definitely helped form our impression of what the Devil looks like according to the Doctor, and his power could be used to reshape the entire planet.

This is of course where the Master comes in, as he views an alliance with Azal to be another short cut in his never ending quest for universal domination, and thus sets himself up as somewhat of a cult leader, mentally controlling the minds of the near by villagers in hopes of currying favor with the Pan-like Space God. But, the Doctor, the Brigader, and the rest of the UNIT faithful manage to short circuit the Master's scheme just in time to enjoy the annual May Day festival, complete with a dance around the old May pole. Although I do feel this story is a bit predictable and campy at times, you can't deny it's boisterous charm and caviler attitude.

Whether you like it or not, this story sums up perfectly what the Third Doctor era really was all about. A swashbuckling super spy of a Doctor, a goatee sporting super villain, dealing with alien threats with the bravado of "A 5 rounds rapid" machine gun blast. Not as much science fiction nuisance. Just a lot of bold and brassy pseudo scientific action/adventure!

  2.) The Three Doctors

 I feel like this entry is somewhat cheating mainly because the reason I like it so much has more to do with the fact that the Second Doctor plays such a prominent role, and I like him so much more than the Third Doctor.

However, I would be lying if I didn't say that one of the best parts of this entire story is the chemistry and witty banter that Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee share through this adventure, bickering like an old married couple, while engaging in a quasi sibling rivalry which makes for some of the best moments from any Doctor Who story ever.

It is very sad to think that one of the main reasons that Pat and Jon get so much screen time together is the fact that William Hartnell, who was also brought back to film this celebration of the show's 10th season, was in extremely poor health, so all of his scenes had to be filmed on a single sound stage as he advised from a far as it were, barely interacting at all with the main cast. But it is comforting to know that playing the Doctor this one last time was in fact William's final acting role before his unfortunate death in 1975.

Still this tale about the Time Lords being so desperate to stop an invasion from the Anti-Matter universe by one of their founding fathers in the legendary scientist, Omega, that they would break the first law of time and allow the Doctor to interact with his past selves is a remarkable conceit, and one that would set the tone for future "multi-Doctor" stories. Plus the fact that the Second Doctor had such terrific backstory as well with the Brig, UNIT and the other Third Doctor mainstays, that it was super interesting to see all of them interact one more time.

I personally love the moment when the Brig is trying to make sense of why the Second Doctor is even there and all he can come up with is that the Tardis mucked around with his face again, transforming him back to the way he first met him in the Cyberman story "The Invasion". It's even better when he finally puts two and two together when seeing both Doctors side by side, and realizes he was truly a lucky man to only have to deal with one of the them at time.

Plus, the Third Doctor is finally "forgiven" by the Time Lords at the end of this story for his help in stopping the Omega threat, and is given the ability to travel time and space again, which was very welcome return to the status quo for me. I won't lie. Earth based adventures for the most part aren't as great as some of the fantastical adventures the Doctor can have elsewhere. 

1.) Inferno

For all of the stories about traveling to far off galaxies or visiting the ancient past, there is one popular science fiction trope which Doctor Who has largely ignored: Alternate Dimensions. Sure, the new Who gave us the Cybermen from the Zeppelin filled Alt Earth, but I always thought that was just an excuse to scrap the often conflicting continuity that was the original Cyber mythos and start from scratch.

With Inferno, you get a real proper journey to a "what if...?" Earth in which all of the characters we have grown to love are replaced with evil counterparts from a fascist dictatorship.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart dons a sinister eye patch, Liz gets a devilish short bob and black boots. And the poor Doctor not only has to contend with a universe in which everyone wants to put him in front of a firing squad as a non conformist spy but also stop a reckless drilling project that plans to breach the Earth's core. For you see, the same events are unfolding on his own Earth at nearly the same time, and the Doctor is getting a first hand view of the deadly results if this drilling goes unchecked as the Earth is threatened with a chain reaction that will reduce it to a radioactive cinder. The result is a unique tale of comparing two different social structures dealing with the same problem with the same players and how things turn out.

But more than just the interesting veiled discussion on the failures of fascism, the story is also extremely gripping as the Doctor attempts to return to his Earth in time to warn them of the potential destruction the drilling will unleash. Thus sets up one of the best cliffhanger endings to an episode in Doctor Who history as The Doctor finally convinces the evil Liz Shaw to help him escape back to his universe and in the process Liz is forced to shoot the evil Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart when he turns on the Doctor, as the Earth explodes in a fiery maelstrom.

Don Houghton really does pen quite a corker of a tale filled with suspense and intrigue. And to top it all off, he throws in the Primords as the "monsters" of the serial, raging zombie like former humans infected by a green goop from deep below which eventually turns them into werewolf like beast men. Again none of that is really necessary to the plot, but like the interesting use of the parallel Earth idea, Inferno delivers some classic sci-fi concepts to cap off what could be the best season of the Third Doctor's reign!  

This one's actually quite good- the production values, the story's interesting, the mysoginy is casual and of the time and it's a way to show us who Sarah is, someone who fights back when she's belittled.