The Visitation

An impressively rollicking story that manages that rarest of feats; giving all three companions something to do that meaningfully contributes to the story. The companions' relationships with one another were well-developed as well. Richard Mace was a delightful rouge, the Tereleptils were thrillingly villainous, and the android... well, they can't all be winners. The Grim Reaper motif was a good idea, but I'm not sure it quite came across. Overall, a nicely made serial that kept up a reasonable pace throughout.

I absolutely love this story. It starts off surprisingly dark where we're introduced to these people who initially seem to be the main guest characters...and then they kill them off before the Doctor and his companions even arrive!

It's such an effective way to open the story, doing a really great job at teasing rather than showing the threat, and setting the stakes for the rest of the adventures.

The monsters are among 80s Who's finest. The Terileptils are really imposing, and the android they use is brilliantly designed and realised.

The highwayman Richard Mace is absolutely hilarious too. Michael Robbins steals the show in that role on so many occasions, and sets himself firmly among some of Doctor Who's finest guest turns.

I really like how this story also does something that the new series would later take inspiration from also, in that it explains historical mysteries in where the black death plague came from and what started the Great Fire of London. That was a very clever move by the writer Eric Saward.

Poor Tegan getting possessed again though, straight after Kinda! She really did have a rough time with the Doctor.

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

Previous Story: Dream Team

Finally, after the string of very experimental episodes, we return to a bit of normality. This is a very generic story, but thanks to a solid cast, witty dialogue and a fun plot this is probably the story I've had the most fun with in all of Season 19.

The Terileptil design is great, accompanied by a menacing voice the Terileptils are instantly a great villain. This is the final classic Doctor Who story to feature the sonic screwdriver, a rather unceremonious end in my opinion but this doesn't take away from the story in the slightest.

I'd like to write a longer review but genuinely this story was just so traditional that I have nothing to say about it, that's not a bad thing, in fact I'd argue it's quite good after the very surreal Season 18 and similarly strange beginning to Season 19.

Next Story: The Star Men

they continue to make adric much dumber than he was in s18 for some reason. he could pilot the tardis before but has difficultly now. he gets captured a lot more. he has to get told off by 5 as if he's his moody teenage son. matthew waterhouse is giving it everything but sadly there is not a lot to give to. pt4 is very exciting!! i like the 17th century setting in general, having the doctor start the great fire is really fun! and it's cool to see an actual historical event. the terileptils have such a cool design, both on their normal half and their scarred half. it is pretty strange that the doctor did not want to bring them back to their planet to be executed, but was cool with letting them die in a fire! richard mace was a fun character, super quirky guy for sure, and he got a nice lil happy ending. the main criticism is 3 companions is just too much and this episode exemplifies it. most of the time all four are seperate so there are like 3-5 different plot threads to follow, so it feels like it is moving pretty slow and it is hard to concentrate on

The plot for this story is modern and dynamic. The idea of an alien invasion in the time of plague, carried out in a covert way is very different from anything the show has done before. It’s exciting. I wish the alien menace wasn’t a harlequin, clown thing. But the idea is very strong indeed. Makes for good plotting and pacing. There is violence as well, which adds drama and stakes. The show is changing for the better.

It is surprising to see them focus on the emotions of our TARDIS crew and the lasting impact on them from the previous story. This is the strongest example in the history of Doctor Who so far that it has treated their companions as real people who are taking part in a continuing drama that, for them, is not split up into little stories. Having said that, it’s crudely done. They have yet to refine their communication to anything other than broad beats and callbacks. It’s promising though.

The characters (especially the Doctor and his companions) and broad plot are the selling points of The Visitation. I like that the alien cannot be returned to its home, because it’s a criminal who will go to prison. This is an alien which is not shown as representative of its race. But the pacing of the plot eeks out at an exceptionally slow speed which makes it difficult to stay excited. This could easily have been a two partner without losing any of the alien’s treacherous plans.

I’m also not sure having The Doctor being responsible for not stopping the great fire of London. Oh dear. Now that’s a mistake!