The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon

THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI  (Part One)  08/03/2024 So, here we are at the start of Peter Davison's final story and it looks like the Doctor and Peri might already be dead! To be honest, I know the new Doctor is joining before the end of the series (for the first time since Season 4!) and I know killing off a new companion after only 5 episodes isn't unprecedented, but I doubt their execution was real. The cliffhanger was definitely a WTF moment, though, leaving you wondering exactly how the hell the Doctor and Peri will survive! They've arrived on the planet Androzani Minor and found themselves embroiled in the machinations of gun runners. The inhabitants of sister planet Androzani Major rely on (are addicted to?) an anti-ageing drug called Spectrox which is created on Androzani Minor (a planet not colonised due to mudbursts from deep within the planet every time it nears its sister planet) by someone called Sharaz Jek. He and his androids control the distribution of the drug,

PLANET OF FIRE  (Part One)  23/02/2024  The Master is back, but lots happened this episode before he turned up for the cliffhanger. Most surprising was the reappearance of Kamelion! I'd completely forgotten he existed until his mechanical screams interrupted the Doctor and Turlough's chat about Daleks and Tegan. Nothing was said about what he'd been up to since the last episode of The King's Demons  but he'd plugged himself into the TARDIS and was 'spasming' (apparently) having picked up a distress call. Turlough recognised it as coming from something or somewhere called Trion and sabotaged it, but they followed the signal to Earth and what looks like Lanzarote. This is where the new companion, Peri, is holidaying with her mother and Marine Archaeologist stepfather, Howard. She's bored and wants to go to Morocco with a couple of English boys she's met (she's American), but Howard wasn't keen and conned her into going out to the boat he's

RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS  (Part One)  08/02/2024  That was all incredibly dramatic and possibly the grittiest the show has ever been. It was written by Script Editor, Eric Saward, so it's perhaps not surprising that it had much in common with Earthshock. In fact, it had many of the same elements but turned up to 11! We have the return of one of the Big Bads, this time with no secrecy leading up to a shock revelation of the Daleks at the cliffhanger. This, to be fair, would have been difficult since this and next week's episode are double length due to scheduling issues brought about by coverage of the Winter Olympics. It actually made it feel like a bit of an event, as well, what with it being the metal meanies' first appearance (the Five Doctors  cameo aside) since their last story nearly five years ago. It's also a direct sequel to Destiny Of The Daleks  seeing the return of Davros, having been tried and imprisoned following his capture in that story 90 years earlie

FRONTIOS  (Part One)  26/01/2024  Another story with some detailed set-up and some really nice design. The TARDIS has arrived in the far future, or at the furthest reaches of the universe, or both - it's never made quite clear - but suffice to say they're orbiting a planet upon which is one of the very last remaining colonies of Humanity. The colony of Frontios is being bombarded by meteor storms and the TARDIS has been brought down in the most recent one. The Doctor noted that it had been caught in a gravitational pull, which seems odd, but I'm sure that will be explained later. The Doctor immediately set about helping the injured with the local doctor, Mr Range, while Tegan and Turlough went off with Range's daughter, Norna, to get a battery to power the lights in the hospital shelter. This is because something has jammed the interior door of the TARDIS. I can't help thinking Christopher H. Bidmead, back again after almost two years, was heavily influenced by the