Category: Classic Season 22

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Classic Season 22 Doctor Who

Attack Of The Cybermen

Doctor WhoThe Doctor wanders right into a Cyberman scheme to alter their own history. When he first encountered them, the Doctor engineered the destruction of the Cybermen’s home planet in order to save Earth. Now, the Cybermen – operating from their base on Telos – plan to divert the course of Halley’s Comet circa 1985, so Earth won’t be there to interfere in Cyber-history. Left behind after the attempted Dalek invasion, Lytton is up to no good on Earth, but his attempt to curry favor with the Cybermen in exchange for a ticket off of Earth turns into a deal with the devil that he can’t survive. And on Telos itself, a pair of renegade slave laborers tries to steal a Cyberman timeship, and the original inhabitants of Telos, who cannot survive in anything but sub-zero temperatures, enlist help in their own fight against the Cybermen.

Order the DVDwritten by Paula Moore
directed by Matthew Robinson
music by Malcolm Clarke

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Maurice Colbourne (Lytton), Brian Glover (Griffiths), Terry Molloy (Russell), James Beckett (Payne), Jonathan David (Stratton), Michael Attwell (Bates), Sarah Berger (Rost), Esther Freud (Threst), Faith Brown (Flast), Sarah Greene (Varne), Stephen Churchett (Bill), Stephen Wale (David), Michael Kilgarriff (CyberController), David Banks (CyberLeader), Brian Orrell (Cyber Lieutenant), John Ainley, Roger Pope, Thomas Lucy, Ian Marshall-Fisher, Pat Gorman (Cybermen)

Broadcast from January 5 through 12, 1985

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 22 Doctor Who

Vengeance On Varos

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS stalls in deep space, drained of one of its power sources. The Doctor is able to nudge the TARDIS toward the planet Varos, the galaxy’s only known natural deposit of zeiton-7 ore. But the rightful governor of Varos is under the thumb of Sil, a sinister profitmongering alien who plans to take over Varos and strip-mine it dry with no regard for the natives of the planet. Life on Varos is so bleak that executions and elections are both broadcast publicly, and they’re not exactly two different things – anytime one of the governor’s referendums fails to meet with the approval of the public, the governor himself suffers at the mercy of a disintegration beam, and naturally it’s on the air. The Doctor and Peri arrive right in the middle of just such an execution, setting a condemned prisoner free and setting in motion a chain of events that could free Varos from Sil’s murderous business dealings.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Philip Martin
directed by Ron Jones
music by Malcolm Clarke

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Martin Jarvis (Governor), Nabil Shaban (Sil), Jason Connery (Jondar), Forbes Collins (Chief Officer), Stephen Yardley (Arak), Sheila Reid (Etta), Geraldine Alexander (Areta), Owen Teale (Maldak), Graham Cull (Bax), Nicholas Chagrin (Quillam), Hugh Martin (Priest), Keith Skinner (Rondel), Bob Tarff (Executioner), Jack McGuire, Alan Troy (Madmen)

Broadcast from January 19 through 26, 1985

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 22 Doctor Who

The Mark Of The Rani

Doctor WhoThe TARDIS is diverted to England at the dawn of the industrial revolution, a particularly sensitive point in human history that could be derailed by one careless time traveler – but in this case, there are no fewer than three careless time travelers. The Master is hatching a plot – yet again – to do away with the Doctor and destroy the Earth, while the Rani, a female Time Lord with a talent for sinister biochemical experiments, uses humans as her guinea pigs. This puts the Doctor and Peri in double jeopardy as the Master and the Rani interfere with each other’s plans, and both of the evil Time Lords couldn’t be less concerned about their effects on Earth’s development.

Order the DVDwritten by Pip Baker & Jane Baker
directed by Sarah Hellings
music by Jonathan Gibbs

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Anthony Ainley (The Master), Kate O’Mara (The Rani), Terence Alexander (Lord Ravensworth), Gawn Grainger (George Stephenson), Peter Childs (Jack Ward), Gary Cady (Luke Ward), Richard Steele (Guard), William Ilkley (Tim Bass), Hus Levant (Edwin Green), Kevin White (Sam Rudge), Martyn Whitby (Drayman), Cordelia Ditton (Older Woman), Sarah James (Young Woman), Nigel Johnson (Josh), Alan Talbot (Tom)

Broadcast from February 2 through 9, 1985

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 22 Doctor Who

The Two Doctors

Doctor WhoThe second Doctor and Jamie are sent on a mission by the Time Lords to ask a team of scientists, as diplomatically as possible, to bring their time travel experiments to an end. The Doctor is unable to convince the head scientist, Dastari, to heed the Time Lords’ warnings; Dastari is far too busy admiring his own work, including his genetic “improvement” of Chessene, a savage Androgum. But Chessene’s augmentations have simply given her the ability to apply her violent primitive impulses on a grander scale – such as a collusion with the Sontarans to use the new time travel device as a weapon of conquest. The Doctor is captured by the Sontarans and taken to their secret base of operations on Earth – and his sixth incarnation will have to find him to avoid the corruption of his entire timeline.

Order the DVDwritten by Robert Holmes
directed by Peter Moffatt
music by Peter Howell

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Patrick Troughton (The Second Doctor), Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon), John Stratton (Shockeye), Jacqueline Pearce (Chessene), Laurence Payne (Dastari), James Saxon (Oscar), Carmen Gomez (Anita), Clinton Greyn (Stike), Tim Raynham (Varl), Aimee Delamain (Dona Arana), Nicholas Farcett (Technician), Laurence Payne (Computer voice), Fernando Monast (Scientist)

Broadcast from February 16 through March 2, 1985

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

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Classic Season 22 Doctor Who

Timelash

Doctor WhoRebellion is in the air on Karfel, a planet whose native population is enslaved by the Borad – a being which used to be one of them, but has now become a horrible genetic mutant. Tyranny is not the Borad’s only gift to Karfel – he has also brought the Timelash, a device that allows political prisoners to be “executed” by dumping them into a time corridor. The Borad has also brought Karfel to the brink of war with the Bandrils, a race of peaceful hand puppets. In the midst of this bleak landscape, the Doctor and Peri arrive, and find themselves racing against time to save the Karfelons from their own esteemed leader.

Order the DVDwritten by Glen McCoy
directed by Pennant Roberts
music by Elizabeth Parker

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), JeanAnne Crowley (Vena), Eric Deacon (Mykros), Robert Ashby (The Borad), Paul Darrow (Tekker), David Chandler (Herbert), Denis Carey (Old Man), David Ashton (Kendron), Peter Robert Scott (Brunner), Dicken Ashworth (Sezom), Tracy Louise Ward (Katz), Christine Kavanaugh (Aram), Steven Mackintosh (Gazak), Dean Hollingsworth (Android), James Richardson (Guardolier), Martin Gower (Tyheer/Bandril Ambassador)

Broadcast from March 9 through 16, 1985

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Categories
Classic Season 22 Doctor Who

Revelation of the Daleks

Doctor WhoThe Doctor arrives on the planet Necros, whose chief industry is funeral services, to pay his final respects to an old friend. But Necros isn’t what it used to be. It’s now run by The Great Healer – in reality, Davros, creator of the malevolent Daleks – who is using Necros as cover for his experiments to convert human beings into mindless Dalek operators. The head of the funeral industry, Kara, has hired an assassin to dispose of Davros, but her hired gun quickly realizes that he’s being paid to act as cannon fodder. The Doctor discovers that his arrival has been anticipated, but he doesn’t suspect that the Daleks are involved until he falls into their clutches.

Order the DVDwritten by Eric Saward
directed by Graeme Harper
music by Roger Limb

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Terry Molloy (Davros), Eleanor Bron (Kara), Clive Swift (Jobel), Alexei Sayle (DJ), Jenny Tomasin (Tasambeker), William Gaunt (Orcini), John Ogwen (Bostock), Stephen Flynn (Grigory), Bridget Lynch-Blosse (Natasha), Trevor Cooper (Takis), Colin Spaull (Lilt), Hugh Walters (Vogel), Alec Linstead (head of Stengos), Ken Barker (Mutant), Royce Mills, Roy Skelton (Dalek voices), Penelope Lee (Computer voice), John Scott Martin, Cy Town, Tony Starr, Toby Byrne (Daleks)

Broadcast from March 23 through 30, 1985

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green