Day 295 — October 22nd 2021
Time-Flight Parts Three and Four
Time-Flight — Part Three
This episode is like a throwback to the early stages of the Graham Williams era — and I don’t mean that in an affectionate nostalgic way. I mean it in terms of looking like the entire budget has run out before we got here, and like they’ve run out of time as well, so they’ve just had to record whatever script they happen to have laying around. I mean this is rubbish.
The thing which has stood out to me the most in this one is the sets — they’re so bare and bland. There’s a shot towards the middle of the episode where the camera is positioned up high to give a view of the entire room in which the Master has set up his crystal ball. If you’d done this sort of shot with any of the sets from Earthshock it would have looked brilliant, with something to see in every corner of the screen. In this instance it simply highlights how empty the set is, with one central ‘feature’ and then lots and lots of empty space. The same is true of the other major sets on display — they’re all bland rooms with a single piece of set dressing in the middle somewhere.
They need all the space because there’s quite a few extras in this one, and I’m assuming that’s where all the money has been spent, trying to swell out the ranks. Sadly they’ve not been given any actual direction, so when the hypnosis has worn off and they realise they’re not at the airport but actually in some strange alien structure they react by… milling around and making small talk. There’s a particularly cringeworthy scene in which Angela asks what’s going on, and she sounds about as interested in the answer as I am in this episode — not at all. I can’t fault the actors for this, they’re only doing what the script asks of them.
Downstairs in the Xeraphin room, Doctor Who stands around impotently while some alien hologram things explain the plot to him. It’s not especially interesting, and it includes such memorable dialogue as;
Nyssa: ‘The Xeraphin?’
Doctor Who: ‘They’re supposed to have lived on the planet Xeraphas, before
it was devastated by crossfire in the Vardon-Kosnax war.’
This feels a million miles away from the quality of the last Part Three I watched — to the point that I’m genuinely amazed that we’re watching episodes made by the same team only weeks apart. Heck, they both had Peter Grimwade involved too. He made Earthshock even better with some incredible direction, but sadly that skill hasn’t carried over into the scripting. It’s a rock-bottom 1/10.
If nothing else this episode adds another two characters to my ever-expanding list of guests who appear inside the TARDIS in this season. It’s reached the point now where it feels like something which has to happen in every single story.
Time-Flight — Part Four
There’s some episodes in this marathon which are a real chore to get through, and it feels as though I’m watching them simply to get it over with. This is one of them, and it’s likely to be a very short post from me, because I’ve got pretty much nothing to say for this one.
It’s just as bad as Part Three, if not slightly worse. It’s another 1/10. The story doesn’t so much end as it just sort of… fizzles out. It seems bizarre to be that having had the Master show up as the villain, and bringing him all the way to Heathrow at the end, you don’t actually get to see him being trapped. Doctor Who says he’s been sent off to some distant planet and we’re just left to accept that. It’s a bizarre cop out — I’d have at least expected a shot of Ainley against some TARDIS roundels looking a little miffed.
If there’s anything good about this one, it’s the shots of Tegan looking around the airport. They afford us some much-needed closure to all her whining earlier in the season. If I’m still doing my ‘alternate’ version of Time-Flight which I started to pitch yesterday, then I’d extend this sequence with Tegan marching up to the Air Australia desk and announcing that she’s Tegan Jovanka reporting for her first day at work. And then handing her resignation across and disappearing back into the busy airport, just in time to see the TARDIS depart. It feels like it needs that extra little something.
I need to add another pilot to my list of ‘guest characters in the TARDIS’, and the ghost of the Professor, who shows up to fly the ship for a single scene before vanishing again. Apart from that… nope, I’ve nothing to say. I don’t know if this is worse than Underworld, but it’s certainly shit all the same.
