Four to Doomsday

From what I gather this is a story that tends to get ragged on a bit by the fandom and to be honest, I don't really see why. I believe this is the first Doctor Who story they ever shot out of sequence, meaning this is the first story they filmed with the new Doctor. Considering this I think Peter does an amazing job, he gets right into it, running about and giving the same energetic yet troubled performance you see in the rest of this season. I think this story works well because of where it's placed in the season. This is Five's first regular story and it's also placed in between Castrovalva and Kinda, two very unique stories that lean into more abstract concepts. In comparison this one feels like a very regular Doctor Who story, and it functions well as that.

For this era especially I think this story is very well made. The sets look great compared to other sets around this time; the costumes are great as well, particularly the urbankans who I think are underrated. The plot is fairly good, Monarch wanting to use earth's resources to fuel his own delusions of meeting himself at the beginning of time. While the side characters are not the most interesting the visual design and story carries it. There is however one element about this story that I am inclined to agree with the haters on, this is probably the poorest showing for Five's companions. Nyssa gets little to do, Tegan spends most of her time complaining and being unhelpful, and this story probably more than any other can be pointed to as causing the fandom's long standing hatred for Adric. Still I think this is a fun story and a good outing for Five, it was in fact his cricket ball moment in Part 4 that made him my favourite classic Doctor when I fist watched this story. 8/10 / 4 stars.

This is an odd story, even by Doctor Who's standards! I really like the concept of an alien planning to steal Earth's minerals in an attempt to break the speed of light, and the stuff with Persuasion and Enlightenment taking on the form of Tegan's drawing is a really clever one.

I also think it's worth noting that even though Peter Davison admitted to feeling nervous during the recording of this serial (it was the first story he filmed), it really doesn't show. He seems so comfortable and confident in the role from the start, a bit like Matt Smith did in the first story he shot, The Time of Angels/Flesh And Stone.

Tegan is really annoying in this story though. I really hated her when she just straight up abandoned the Doctor and the others and left in the TARDIS at the end of Episode Three. I mean, what the hell, Tegan? Shows how much you care about them.

Also: Monarchy is way too easily defeated at the end. All the Doctor does is chuck the poison at him and he's shrunk. I was expecting a little more.

Overall a pretty good story.

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

Previous Story: Psychodrome

After a dodgy start with Castrovalva, this is the story that has fully sold me on Peter Davison. He's captured the role completely.

Also, this is a perfect example of what can be done with 3 companions. They each get an equal role in the story and it proves that they can be balanced well without needing to sideline one or more of them.

The actual story itself was pretty good, I found the way they handled these different cultures to be fairly, not-racist? Normally this shouldn't be something that's necessary to point out but with the 70s/80s BBC this is a surprising change of pace, (I'm looking at you The Talons of Weng-Chiang). The scene where Tegan speaks to the Aboriginal in Tiwi is great and I'm glad Janet Fielding pushed to put that in.

Adric is written really poorly in this story, he's needlessly sexist at the beginning of the story and he sides with the villain for most of it, it's not at all how he was portrayed in previous stories.

Next Story: Kinda

idk pretty mid. adric is written very strangely in this, all of a sudden an instant anti-democracy sympathiser and sexist which he had never been in other episodes?? i hope this does not continue in his character going forward. the idea of the four different earthlings with different cultures and times is neat but it's not very explored. it's really sick that tegan can speak tiwi though that's a sick character detail and i'm really glad janet fielding pressed for that instead of random tribal noises or some weirdness. the villains never feel very threatening at all, but also are going to graphically execute the doctor it is such an escalation from what they do the rest of the time. obviously planning to kill all people on earth to repopulate it or take its cobalt is very evil - but that is villainy we are told and not shown. actually that is a problem with a lot of this serial - like bigon just tells doctor mostly everything, instead of the doctor having to work it out

This story shows how three companions can be put to excellent use. The way in which Adric is so easily indoctrinated, while Tegan tries everything to escape adds to the drama and unpredictability of the story. It’s amazing seeing how little control The Fifth Doctor has over his TARDIS team and how he can lose his temper with them - interesting new facets to the character. The ambiguity of the menace and the fact they are not overtly aggressive towards our TARDIS team only adds to that drama.

Peter Davison feels like The Doctor in this story. He has arrived and I am loving his performance.

This story has an amazing concept. Humans from throughout time, from many cultures end up on a spaceship run by seemingly non-hostile aliens who seem to want to get along. But The Doctor has an uneasy feeling. The green aliens create humanoid versions of themselves based off of Tegan’s drawings as part of a plan to head to Earth to resettle, and the human population with androids.

Watching the doctor and Tegan “enjoy” the on board cultural entertainment whilst worrying where Adric and Nyssa are is hilarious. This story is packed for of sparky details like that. This story looks and feels more exciting than any we’ve had in ages. The show feels invigorated.