Exotron

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

Previous Story: The People Made of Smoke

If I had to rate this based on how generic it is, I'd give it a 5. It's a fairly bland action story, it's got bland characters, a bland setting and a weirdly obtrusive soundtrack. The Doctor is written quite out of character, I understand that 5 does a lot of self-sacrifing but he usually only does it when there's no other way and atleast has some sort of a back up plan.

Here, he enters the suit and says his farewells to Peri while leaving the guy who is in control of all the suits completely unchecked. I'm fairly certain there were other ways around that situation so it left the Doctor looking a bit dumb. I honestly wish they'd stop doing these "there's only one way, all hope is lost" sacrifices in such boring stories because you know he'll be back in 5 minutes.

The fact that it's such a basic story makes it impossible to believe that the Doctor's life is at threat from a bunch of generic robots. Overall, this is a very skippable story, it's a shame that Peter Davison's talents are being wasted in stories set so close to the end of the Fifth Doctor.

Next Story: Urban Myths