Another really good finale I love how this kinda hints towards what’s later to come in s18 with romana being called back to gallifrey her freedom ending

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

Previous Story: The Skin of the Sleek

This story has so much going on that I don't know where to start. This is a solid story all-round, from the plot, the setting, the characters and the performances.

The planet of Funderell is a strange one, a gelatinous planet the whole way down, embroiled with ancient Time Lord antics. The way the mystery slowly unravels is one of my favourite parts about this two-parter.

The villain, Sartia, is brilliantly acted by Joannah Tincey. She's an insane, manipulative character and you can really tell that there is a history between her and Romana.

Speaking of Romana, this is a story that focuses heavily on her, her attitude towards travelling with the Doctor, her history in the Academy. It's all very interesting insight into a companion who has loads of potential for exploration.

The plot itself, while at times hard to follow, is well-crafted and doesn't lose your attention at all. The stakes are high especially towards the end and I like that the Doctor takes a bit of a backseat to let Romana shine.

Overall, its a thrilling conclusion to Series 6 that captures the surreality and uniqueness of it's respective era.

Next Story: Meglos

4DA Series 6 Review: 8/10

Every single story in this series was great. I loved the unique feel in each story and even the worst bits were entertaining. What I think this series excels in is the atmosphere of every story, you can easily imagine the setting and characters leaving the individual parts of this series quite memorable.

I think it could do with being a bit more experimental, most of these stories are fairly basic in terms of plot. I also feel like it could have done with more K9, he didn't appear in enough stories in my opinion.

It's a great series with rich worldbuilding, the plots are mostly easy to follow so it's a very good one to pick up for a bit of simple fun.

REVIEW ALSO POSTED IN THE SKIN OF THE SLEEK

I appreciate what this story tried to do, even if it didn't do it too interestingly. I lost my interest halfway through Episode 1 which made it difficult to engage my interest for the other three episodes.

Marc Platt manages to capture the essence of the Fourth Doctor perfectly - striking a balance between his straight-faced, serious persona within Season 18, but also harkening back to elements of his more whimsical side from Season 17. For once however, this isn't the Time Lord we're focusing on. This is clearly more of a Romana-centric story, and Lalla Ward does a reasonably good job. If she comes across as brash or rude at times, it fits in with the narrative of the story as she is put through a lot and is clearly stressed out. I'm a little disappointed that K-9 wasn't in the finale, but that's just a minor nitpick I have.

Sartia feels like a knockoff Master here - a renegade Time Lord, who's old friends with Romana and butting heads with her. She feels incredibly pantomimey and over the top for a villain, and I'm really not impressed. I don't care much for who she is, but that's not at a discredit to Joannah Tincey's performance. She tries her hardest to bring out the best of this character, but I just was left bored.

I'm really fascinated by the idea of alien planets. Like, proper alien, something completely unique, with completely different weather patterns to Earth, their own cultures, everything. Season 18 definitely tries that, and it's clear in this episode too - a planet with a surface similar to a newtonian fluid. The setting is established so well and it's interesting to see what Marc Platt does with Funderell - it lives up to its name, the concept definitely is fun (if the setting itself is a little dark and ominous...)

I don't know who's involved here. No-one really made that much of an impression on me. There was a camera crew, but I don't know what they were doing, it's never properly explained, and if it was, it wasn't explained well. Also, they just felt a bit shoehorned in and didn't fit into the story properly.

Standard score, nothing interesting - still loving the synths.

This is an average adventure - the only thing worth of note is the worldbuilding aspect, as well as the brilliant performances from Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, of course!