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 ...