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TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Monday, March 22, 1982

Production Code

6C

Written by

Peter Grimwade

Directed by

Ron Jones

Runtime

100 minutes

Story Type

Series Finale

Time Travel

Past, Present

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Telepathy, Face Off, Master of Disguise

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Heathrow Airport

Synopsis

While investigating a vanishing Concorde at Heathrow Airport, the Doctor and his companions are thrown millions of years back in time, where a mysterious alien called Kalid is trying to control the ancient powers of the Xeraphin.

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4 Episodes

Part One

First aired

Monday, March 22, 1982

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Peter Grimwade

Directed by

Ron Jones

UK Viewers

10 million

Synopsis

A Concorde loaded with passengers and crew vanishes into thin air. The still-grieving TARDIS crew arrive at Heathrow Airport in 1981 as the Doctor volunteers his services to solve the mystery.


Part Two

First aired

Tuesday, March 23, 1982

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Peter Grimwade

Directed by

Ron Jones

UK Viewers

8.5 million

Synopsis

The Doctor's TARDIS is stolen, and tracking it down reveals the existence of an alien named Kalid controlling events in the past. While the Doctor challenges Kalid's motives for being there, Tegan and Nyssa discover the source of Kalid's power - an even greater threat for the Doctor.


Part Three

First aired

Monday, March 29, 1982

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Peter Grimwade

Directed by

Ron Jones

UK Viewers

8.9 million

Synopsis

From within their sarcophagus, the gestalt Xeraphin are communicating through Nyssa. But their psychic energy is so powerful it may destroy her body completely.


Part Four

First aired

Tuesday, March 30, 1982

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Peter Grimwade

Directed by

Ron Jones

UK Viewers

8.1 million

Synopsis

The Master's TARDIS is repaired and the Doctor must follow him back to 20th century Heathrow, once he has rescued all the passengers and crew from both Concordes.



Characters

How to watch Time-Flight:

Reviews

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6 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

Here's the thing about Time-Flight. I will always defend the idea that the central idea is absolutely fantastic. A Concord flight goes missing, sent back along a time corridor millions of years in the past? Actual pilots trying to work the TARDIS while the Doctor is helped by a professor of hypnotism? The villain appearing to use magic, which turns out to be technology and he gets 'defeated' after only two episodes only to be revealed as a disguise (for literally no reason at all)? Great stuff.

But then things fall off a cliff. People overcome the hypnotism, then fall victim to it again, then overcome it. Characters need to get through a wall, then make it through, then need to get through the wall, then make it through, then need to get through the wall. TARDIS circuit boards get exchanged with other TARDIS circuit boards, which then get exchanged for other TARDIS circuit boards. TARDISes dematerialising then immediately rematerialising, then dematerialising, then rematerialising. Grey blobs appear then disappear then appear then disappear then appear again. It's not a time corridor we're stuck in, it's clearly a time loop.

There are still really lovely moments. Tegan working as an actual flight attendant, and experiencing Heathrow Airport, before unexpectedly getting left behind. The gradual shift in the pilots' attitudes as they come to appreciate the Doctor, his companions and the TARDIS. Any interaction with Professor Hayter.

But this can't overcome just how tedious most of the serial is. And the most irritating part of the whole serial? I'll explain later...


weebiloobil

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This review contains spoilers!

Time-Flight starts out very strong as we finally get to Heathrow Airport.  The whole energy at the terminal is a lot of fun and would be a very cool, original moment for Doctor Who were it not for the fact we are following very similar story beats to The Faceless Ones.

Nevertheless, Time-Flight eventually distinguishes itself by flinging our heroes and a few other characters far into the past.  From here, it's all pretty disappointing.  We never really see anything cool or particularly noteworthy while exploring Primordial Earth.  Mostly, we just meet other humans stranded here.  It's super disappointing and the Master's weird and likely racist disguise makes for a very underwhelming affair.  Pretty quickly our characters lose purpose and the whole thing becomes a very disappointing story.  There's cool moments like when Teagan and Nyssa are attacked by past monsters, and even hints of Nyssa's psychic potential that could have been used in a more interesting way, but sadly the larger narrative around psychic aliens the Master is messing with just did not engage me much at all.  A promising serial completely laid waste by a bunch of meandering nonsense.

I also loathe how little Adric is even mentioned in this story.  It really feels like the show is brushing aside any potential character development in what should have been one of the more significant moments in Who history.


dema1020

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This review contains spoilers!

This is definitely the weakest story of Season 19. There’s some great continuity and character development with the TARDIS crew trying to deal with the loss of Adric, but for the most part the story just feels like it was written around Concorde, rather than Concorde supplementing the story.

The script kind of feels like it needed a few more drafts to me. There are a few odd moments that probably wouldn’t have made it to a final screenplay, like the Master’s Kalid disguise serving no purpose within the narrative, and the Doctor just straight up abandoning Tegan at Heathrow at the end of the serial. I mean, seriously: what the hell, Doctor? The least you could have done is said goodbye to her!

I do like the scenes with Tegan and Nyssa though. Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton have so much chemistry together. You can tell also that Anthony Ainley is having such a great time. He clearly relishes playing the Master. And there is a great story in here waiting to emerge. They just don’t fully realise it here.


WhoPotterVian

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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: Earthshock


I don't think this story is quite as bad as most people think it is. The first episode especially is really good and the mystery of a disappearing Concorde is very intriguing. The location footage at Heathrow is brilliant even if it is basically one large advert for Concorde.

I saw a lot of complaints about how they gloss over Adric's death in this story, but I don't really see that. They had a heartfelt moment at the beginning and then didn't really have any time to mourn considering they were busy wrapped up in the plot. The only genuine complaint I have was the Master in this story. He had no reason to be disguised, he wasn't hiding himself from anyone and his disguise feels oddly racist.

That's basically it though, the rest of this is a fun story with a lot of ambition that it can't live up to due to the budget. I was expecting Tegan's departure to be a little bit different, but we'll see how that plays out in the next season


Next Story: The Land of the Dead


thedefinitearticle63

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This review contains spoilers!

i like how this is paced a lot, with kalid being the villain for part 1 and 2 and then the master for part 3 and 4, makes the story flow quick and not be boring! 5s era makes use of the tardis so much it is very interesting. much better at short hops! i love seeing interior shots as well they're very common. crying cause i can never go aboard. i should build a replica in real life or the sims or something and do all the companion bedrooms, that'd be cute. do you think they ever move into a past companion's room? anyway the side characters of the pilot and crew were super super fun guys. it was crazyyy to just leave tegan at heathrow?? we'll see how that develops. also a pretty fun master story in general. i wonder why the master's tardis so often appears as a column?


lizshaw

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Quotes

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TEGAN: Oh, great. You make it sound like a shopping list, ticking off things as you go. Aren't you forgetting something rather important? Adric is dead.

NYSSA: Tegan, please.

DOCTOR: We feel his loss as well.

TEGAN: Well, you could do more than grieve. You could go back.

NYSSA: Could you?

DOCTOR: No.

NYSSA: But surely the TARDIS is quite capable of-

TEGAN: We can change what happened if we materialise before Adric was killed.

DOCTOR: And change your own history?

TEGAN: Look, the freighter could still crash into Earth. That doesn't have to be changed. Only Adric doesn't have to be on board.

DOCTOR: Now listen to me, both of you. There are some rules that cannot be broken even with the TARDIS. Don't ever ask me to do anything like that again. You must accept that Adric is dead. His life wasn't wasted. He died trying to save others, just like his brother, Varsh. You know, Adric had a choice. This is the way he wanted it.

TEGAN: We used to fight a lot. I'll miss him.

NYSSA: So will I.

DOCTOR: And me. But he wouldn't want us to mourn unnecessarily.

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Transcript Needs checking

Part One

[Flight deck]

(Speedbird - aka Concorde, the pride of British Airways - is in flight.)

URQUHART: This is Captain Urquhart again.

[Passenger cabin]


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