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TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Monday, November 2, 1987

Production Code

7F

Written by

Malcolm Kohll

Directed by

Chris Clough

Runtime

75 minutes

Time Travel

Past

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Toll port G715, Shangri-La holiday camp, Earth, Wales

Synopsis

Boarding a Nostalgia Tours bus, the Doctor and Mel go for a holiday. They will soon learn that their fellow passenger Delta is a Chimeron Queen, fleeing from the Bannermen who wish to make her species extinct. Thus, the time travellers' trip to Shangri-La turns into a battle against genocide...

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3 Episodes

Part One

First aired

Monday, November 2, 1987

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Malcolm Kohll

Directed by

Chris Clough

UK Viewers

5.3 million

Appreciation Index

63

Synopsis

Wales, 1959. A top-secret US satellite has mysteriously gone missing. This could have something to do with the arrival of a party of alien tourists en route to Disneyland, amongst their number Mel and the Doctor, and the Queen of the Chimerons - who's fleeing the Bannermen and their genocidal leader Gavrok...


Part Two

First aired

Monday, November 9, 1987

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Malcolm Kohll

Directed by

Chris Clough

UK Viewers

5.1 million

Appreciation Index

60

Synopsis

Mel's just discovered something very interesting about the life cycle of her new friend and the Doctor has been cornered by an alien bounty hunter wearing blue suede shoes.


Part Three

First aired

Monday, November 16, 1987

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Malcolm Kohll

Directed by

Chris Clough

UK Viewers

5.4 million

Appreciation Index

60

Synopsis

As Billy and Ray do what they can to help save Delta and the baby, the Doctor and Goronwy the beekeeper face Gavrok and his Bannermen one last time...



Characters

How to watch Delta and the Bannermen:

Reviews

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15 reviews

Not very good objectively, but it is so fun! Doctor Who comfort food.


CarrotJuice

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Delta and the Bannermen is a really entertaining and fun story. It has a great cast of characters, good settings, nice location work and excellent music. The plot is pretty interesting, although I did notice a few small inconsistencies.


Bongo50

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This review contains spoilers!

Personally I enjoyed this one. Episode one was great, good pacing and mix of elements setting up the story. I can definitely see how this influenced future stories like Voyage of the Damned and Planet of the Dead. Some great humor as well.

The other two parts were just okay. However, I enjoyed the final scenes, felt very modern with the song playing while wrapping things up.

Other than the great, (but campy,) 80s music, Doctor Who is definitely on it's way growing up.


whitestar1993

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This review contains spoilers!

Though Season 24 doesn't have the best reputation, this and Paradise Towers aren't that bad by any stretch of the imagination.  Sure, Delta and the Bannermen is a little silly, but it is silly in the best way imaginable.  Full of colourful and memorable characters, while just going for every wacky idea in the book.  A werewolf showing up in such circumstances practically feels expected, rather than the abrupt turn it ought to be.  I had a lot of fun with these episodes and enjoyed a lot of the guest characters like the eponymous Delta, while the 1959 setting worked well for me.  It's a lot like Paradise Towers, where both serials are jam packed with ideas and fun characters, and while the energy is quite chaotic, it is also very infectious and hard not to enjoy.


dema1020

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This review contains spoilers!

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Flip-Flop


What an absolutely joyful story. It's silly and absurd in all the ways I enjoy. It's hardly some masterpiece of writing, it's got extremely ridiculous performances and yet I'd go back to it over most stories any day. Having a story set in Wales properly is really fun and brings us some excellent side characters. Ray, for example, was great.

It wasn't all good side characters, Delta was really flat and uninteresting. So was Billy too for that matter. Their whole relationship felt like it came out of nowhere if I'm being honest. It's the only part of this story that makes me think it could've done with an extra part. I did really like the Bannermen though, silly as they were. Gavrok in particular is a really over-the-top villain but nonetheless an enjoyable one.

It's really interesting watching what's essentially a love letter to the 50s... from the 80s. Fascinating to see how the perception of an era has changed (or rather, not changed) in all this time. It's also an excuse for a lot of actual 50s music which was really odd as I'm so used to Classic Who being devoid of any pop culture. Speaking of music, the score was brilliant for the most part. A bit distracting in some places but again I'm used to really bland incidental music that having a genuine soundtrack like this is good enough on it's own.

Absolutely love this story.


Next Story: The Fires of Vulcan


thedefinitearticle63

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Statistics

AVG. Rating389 members
3.08 / 5

Trakt.tv

AVG. Rating173 votes
3.40 / 5

Member Statistics

Watched

692

Favourited

47

Reviewed

15

Saved

3

Skipped

1

Quotes

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DOCTOR: Love has never been noted for its rationality.

— Seventh Doctor, Delta and the Bannermen

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Transcript Needs checking

Part One

[Planet surface]

(On an alien planet with a very big moon in the sky, troops appear at the top of a ridge. Below them, green humanoids lie dead amongst explosions. They fire at fleeing survivors. Don Henderson is in charge.)

GAVROK: Take no prisoners! Kill them all!

(A young woman in white is defended by two green aliens. They kill one of their attackers, who retaliate. As Gavrok sounds a horn, the young woman shoots, cracking it.)


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