This story is, unfortunately, less than the sum of its parts. A lot of it is treading common ground; a sequel to an unseen story, like with Face of Evil; a deformed villain who wants Peri for his bride, like in Caves of Androzani; yet another explanation for the Loch Ness monster, like in Terror of the Zygons. Most of those aren't even good stories. The sequel to an unseen story is good in concept but tends to be more confusing than anything in execution; I've expressed my distaste for Zek in my Caves of Androzani review; and while the Loch Ness monster could be fun, we've already done that, so a second explanation creates a bit of a mess.

All that aside, I didn't think the story was terrible. The secondary cast was filled with interesting characters, and the actors held up the story quite well. The only exception in my opinion was Herbert. I found him as insufferable as the Doctor did, and didn't see a reason for him to be there for the most part. I did think the reveal that he was H.G. Wells was quite charming, however.

Things fell apart more in the second part. The pacing was very odd, and the climax where the Doctor attempted to sacrifice himself really suffered for it. It stretched far too long, and with Herbert acting as comic relief I found it extremely difficult to be invested. I knew they would survive, but they weren't even trying here. It doesn't help that when they inevitably returned the Doctor refused to explain how; really showing the hand of the author there, it's obvious they just couldn't be bothered to think of an explanation.

So while I didn't suffer watching this as much as some people clearly did, and I might choose to rewatch it (if only the first part) in the future, I wouldn't exactly recommend it.

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

Previous Story: Davros

I was going into this expecting something awful and what I got was an OK story. Just OK, bit dull at points, bit fun too. Really generic story about weirdly-named aliens fighting other weirdly-named aliens while having some sort of a civil-war. It's really unremarkable but it's not as horrible as I've seen other people rate it.

At the very least, Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are good here. Baker especially is incredibly entertaining to watch and manages to make stories like this worthwhile. I like this story's usage of a historical figure, H. G. Wells. He's played quite well by David Chandler and has a fun dynamic with the Doctor. The reveal of his identity at the end was quite charming.

Overall it's definitely not a great story but I don't see why this one is hated as much as stories like The Twin Dilemma.

Next Story: Year of the Pig

Bad 👍

Why are The Doctor and Peri still arguing? It comes across as if they hate being wanderers and companions in time and space. Isn’t this supposed to be fun? Where is the spirit of adventure? Is actual screaming from The Doctor and flinching from Peri necessary? The activity on the fascistic planet may lack drama when it comes to the Timelash machine but has some good character moments in the quieter darker corners. Our leads however have no such charm. Peri complaining to The Doctor that the complex they find themselves in is too “matte”, preferring a lively “glossy” finish pretty much sums up the problems with this season.

Why would they have poisonous plants just sitting around in the place? Seems like an accident waiting to happen. Totally illogical.

All my good will for Colin Baker in visual form is gone. I am very much looking forward to seeing the back of his ham fisted hack acting. Thank God he was able to redeem himself with Big Finish, because he is rubbish here. The excruciating scenes with H.G. Wells are a good case in point. So much gesticulating and shouting. I imagined Christopher Eccleston playing the same scene with a low key delivery and dismissive tone - he would transform those lines into gold.

It’s an ambitious script but the production does not manage to realise any of the drama. The Doctor enters the Timelash and despite the production team’s best efforts looks incredibly cheap and unthreatening.

The Doctor shames Borad (baddie of the week) for having a facial deformity, which is lame. I could see the idea of the Borad trying to steal Peri as his bride working if the acting was able to sell the dialogue. Unfortunately I care very little about any of the characters presented.

When in his chair, Borad could kill anyone at any time he wants but doesn’t - again, totally illogical.

Has there ever been a more predictable revelation in Doctor Who as Herbert being revealed as H.G. Wells? Yawn.