Category: Classic Season 18

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

The Leisure Hive

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Romana, after an unsuccessful attempt at a Brighton vacation, pay a visit to the war-torn planet Argolis. Laid to waste by a war between the native Argolins and the reptilian Foamasi, Argolis is now not much more than a deadly environment whose sole artificial structure – the Leisure Hive – is a holiday resort with an anti-war theme. The Argolins themselves are sterile, and have been sponsoring tachyon experiments conducted by a human named Hardin. Hardin boasts that he can use tachyonics to reverse the aging process of the Argolins, but in truth he’s nowhere close to that goal. The arrival of two Time Lords seems to coincide with a wave of violence, including a man who appears to have been strangled with the Doctor’s scarf. But the presence of two seasoned time travelers also threatens to unravel a plan to sell the defective tachyon technology to the Argolins…and the Doctor and Romana soon become targets themselves. To make matters worse, the brash young son of the Argolins’ leader has plans to lift his people from a dying, pacifist race to conquerors of the galaxy.

Season 18 Regular Cast: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), John Leeson (voice of K9)

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by David Fisher
directed by Lovett Bickford
music by Peter Howell

Guest Cast: Adrienne Corri (Mena), David Haig (Pangol), Laurence Payne (Morix), John Collin (Brock), Nigel Lambert (Hardin), Martin Fisk (Vargos), David Allister (Stimson), Ian Talbot (Klout), Andrew Lane (Chief Foamasi), Roy Montague (Argolin Guide), Harriet Reynolds (Tannoy voice), Clifford Norgate (Generator voice), David Bulbeck, David Korff, James Muir (Foamasi), Alys Dyer (Baby)

Original Title: The Argolins

Broadcast from August 30 through September 20, 1980

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

Meglos

Doctor WhoA power crisis in the underground habitat of the planet Tigella revives an age-old debate between science and religion. Tigella’s scientists want to examine their power source, the otherworldly Dodecahedron, more closely to see if it can help to avert the impending crisis that would force the Tigellans back to their planet’s uninhabitable surface. But the planet’s religious faction, led by Lexa, refuses to allow anyone access to the Dodecahedron, which they claim is a sacred relic. Zastor, Tigella’s leader, comes up with an unorthodox compromise: call for the Doctor’s help. But just as the TARDIS responds to the call, another plan is set into motion: Meglos, the last surviving member of the cactus-like Zolpha-Thuran race, has enlisted the aid of Gaztak pirates to take over the physical form of a hapless human. Once Meglos has this ability, he uses it to impersonate the Doctor, go to neighboring Tigella, and steal the Dodecahedron for himself. To ensure that the real Doctor doesn’t interfere with his plan, he traps the TARDIS in a chronic hysteresis – a time loop – from which the Doctor and Romana have to devise an ingenious escape. But by the time the real Time Lords arrive, the damage is done – the Dodecahedron is missing, and the Doctor is arrested for the gravest crime possible on Tigella.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by John Flanagan & Andrew McCulloch
directed by Terence Dudley
music by Peter Howell and Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: Edward Underdown (Zastor), Jacqueline Hill (Lexa), Crawford Logan (Deedrix), Colette Gleeson (Caris), Bill Fraser (Grugger), Frederick Treves (Brotadac), Simon Shaw (Tigellan Guard), Christopher Owen (Earthling)

Notes: This marks the only time that a former companion has returned to televised Doctor Who in a completely different role. Jacqueline Hill was one of the three original TARDIS travelers, Barbara Wright, in the earliest seasons of the series. Guest star Bill Fraser made himself infamous by claiming, during the publicity for Meglos, that he only took the part of General Grugger on the condition that he would get to kick K-9 onscreen. Apparently he was such a good adversary for the robot dog that he took on K-9 without the Doctor around to stop him in K-9 & Company.

Original Title: The Last Zolfa-Thuran

Broadcast from September 27 through October 18, 1980

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

Full Circle

Doctor WhoThe Doctor and Romana are en route back to Gallifrey when something strange happens to the TARDIS. Though it takes time for them to realize it, the TARDIS has fallen through a kind of wormhole into the alternate universe of E-space. Instead of Gallifrey, the Doctor has arrived on Alzarius, a planet whose small humanoid population is threatened by the onset of a deadly mist. During the time of mistfall, legend has it that spiders emerge from the indigenous fruit and deadly creatures appear. A troubled kid named Adric is trapped outside during mistfall, but stumbles into the TARDIS and befriends the Doctor and Romana. The Doctor soon finds that the horrific creatures that roam Alzarius during mistfall are more closely related to the besieged humanoids than either party realizes.

Download this episodewritten by Andrew Smith
directed by Peter Grimwade
music by Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: Richard Willis (Varsh), Bernard Padden (Tylos), June Page (Keara), James Bree (Nefred), Alan Rowe (Garif), Leonard Maguire (Draith), George Baker (Login), Tony Calvin (Dexeter), Norman Bacon (Marsh child), Andrew Forbes (Omril), Adrian Gibbs (Rysik), Barney Lawrence, Steve Kelly, Stephen Calcutt, Keith Guest, Graham Cole, James Jackson, Steven Watson (Marshmen)

Broadcast from October 25 through November 15, 1980

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

State Of Decay

Doctor WhoStill trapped in E-Space, the Doctor, Romana, K-9 and – unbeknownst to them – stowaway Adric arrive on a planet whose nomadic people live in deference to a trio of well-dressed royals – but their rulers are, in fact, vampires who worship an even more powerful vampire known as the Great One. The Doctor knows of the Great One too, recalling passages of ancient Gallifreyan history involving a pitch battle between Rassilon and the vampire race. The Doctor also realizes that the pieces are in place here to defeat the Great One once and for all, but before he can put his desperate plan into action, he may have already lost Adric to the vampires.

Download this episodewritten by Terrance Dicks
directed by Peter Moffatt
music by Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: William Lindsay (Zargo), Rachel Davies (Camilla), Emrys James (Aukon), Iain Rattray (Habris), Thane Bettany (Tarak), Arthur Hewlett (Kalmar), Stacy Davies (Veros), Clinton Greyn (Ivo), Rhoda Lewis (Marta), Dead Allen (Karl), Stuart Blake (Zoldaz), Stuart Fell (Roga), Alan Chuntz (Guard)

Original Title: The Wasting

Broadcast from November 22 through December 13, 1980

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

Warriors’ Gate

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS is boarded in mid-flight – a virtually unthinkable event – by Biroc, a lion-like Tharil who seems to be on the run from something. He brings the TARDIS to the zero point – an intersection between E-space and N-space that could finally get the Doctor back to his home universe. This is also of interest to Rorvik, the captain of a space freighter carrying a load of Tharil slaves. Rorvik’s ship has been stranded here for some time, and his plans for escaping are growing more desperate and impractical. A mysterious and seemingly ancient gateway appears as space at the zero point begins to fall in upon itself. Romana is determined to free the Tharils from slavery, even if it means missing the chance to escape from E-space… but the Doctor learns the oppressed were once the oppressors, and there may be no justice for either party this time.

Download this episodewritten by Stephen Gallagher
directed by Paul Joyce
music by Peter Howell

Guest Cast: Clifford Rose (Rorvik), Kenneth Cope (Packard), David Weston (Biroc), Jeremy Gittins (Lazlo), Freddie Earle (Aldo), Harry Waters (Royce), David Kincaid (Lane), Vincent Pickering (Sagan), Robert Vowles (Gundan)

Broadcast from January 3 through 24, 1981

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

The Keeper Of Traken

Doctor WhoThe dying Keeper of the harmonious Union of Traken summons the Doctor to help his world as his reign comes to a close. Normally the Keeper would never summon outside help, but in this case an otherworldly evil is slowly preparing to take control of the Union, and otherworldly help will be needed to defeat it. But as betrayals and complacency allow a malignant alien to assume the Keepership – and with it enormous power – the Doctor is slow to realize that this particular adversary is known to him personally. Though he is able to preserve Traken’s people, the Doctor is unaware that his greatest adversary has gained a new lease on life.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Johnny Byrne
directed by John Black
music by Roger Limb

Guest Cast: Anthony Ainley (Tremas), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Sheila Ruskin (Kassia), Denis Carey (The Keeper), John Woodnutt (Seron), Margot Van De Burgh (Katura), Robin Soans (Luvic), Roland Oliver (Neman), Geoffrey Beevers (Melkur)

Broadcast from January 31 through February 21, 1981

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 18 Doctor Who

Logopolis

Doctor WhoAfter he takes complete measurements of a British Police Box, the inspiration for the exterior appearance of the TARDIS, the Doctor plans to visit Logopolis to seek the help of the mathematical geniuses there, whose near-mystic incantations of intricate mathematical formulas actually keep the universe from dying a premature death. Thanks to the interference of the Master, the Doctor becomes trapped, and an Australian stewardess named Tegan wanders into the TARDIS, assuming it to be a real Police Box. The Doctor also receives a distress call from Nyssa, whose father has gone missing on Traken. A mysterious ghostly figure appears and disappears, but the Doctor remains silent as to its identity, and the Master finally emerges from the shadows on Logopolis, poised to destroy the universe by eliminating its guardians. All the while, the TARDIS cloister bell counts down last remaining hours of the Doctor’s fourth life.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Christopher H. Bidmead
directed by Peter Grimwade
music by Paddy Kingsland

Guest Cast: Anthony Ainley (The Master), John Fraser (Monitor), Dolores Whiteman (Aunt Vanessa), Tom Georgeson (Detective Inspector), Christopher Hurst (Security Guard), Ray Knight, Peter Roy, Derek Suthern (Policemen), Robin Squire (Pharos technician)

Broadcast from February 28 through March 21, 1981

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green