Publisher: CinemaSerf September 6, 2024
The "Brigadier" (Nicholas Courtney) walks into the lab just as the TARDIS takes an unexpected trip that sees the "Doctor" (Jon Pertwee) and "Jo" (Katy Manning) travel forward in time to the remote planet "Uxarieus" that's only recently been colonised by "Ashe" (John Ringham) and his team. No sooner have they arrived, though, than a more militaristic bunch from a mining company land and decide that the place is much too rich in minerals to be left to these folks. An arbiter is sent for, but it's "The Master" (Roger Delgado) who assumes that role and it's soon fairly clear that he has an altogether different agenda on this planet with a technologically advanced past buried deep beneath it's rocks - and that his fellow Time Lords have sent the "Doctor" to thwart his latest megalomanic plans! There's a little bit of the "Forbidden Planet" (1956) to the philosophy of this six-parter coupled with some good old-fashioned human greed, ambition and betrayal. There's also some fun to be had with a robot with giant hands and the domesticated UNIT theme is left behind as we spend much of these episodes on an alien world with plenty going on. There's a decent enough dynamic going on between Pertwee and the hammy Delgado and the writing provides dialogue that keeps the story moving along entertainingly, but slowly, as story is strings out just a bit too thinly. Perhaps it could have better suited a four part, better condensed, format? Some effort has gone into creating a degree of menace and some half-decent visual effects and even if the sets do wobble a little more than I usually spot, it advances this season adequately, if unremarkably, and it bodes well for some future adventures with a "Doctor" no longer captive on Earth.