The Awakening

Doctor WhoThe Doctor tries to steer the TARDIS to the present-day village of Little Hodcombe, where Tegan plans to visit her grandfather, Andrew Varney. But he has disappeared and something is amiss in the village – the annual medieval reconstructionists’ wargames have taken a decidedly more hostile and sinister tone this year. In the nearby church, something terrible has taken hold of many of the villagers’ minds, and it’s manipulating them to create more fear and hatred – something the creature craves as psychic sustenance.

Order the DVDwritten by Eric Pringle
directed by Michael Owen Morris
music by Peter Howell

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Polly James (Jane Hampden), Denis Lill (Sir George Hutchinson), Glyn Houston (Colonel Wolsey), Jack Galloway (Joseph Willow), Frederick Hall (Andrew Verney), Keith Jayne (Will Chandler), Christopher Saul (Trooper)

Broadcast from January 19 through 20, 1984

LogBook entry & review by Earl Green

Review: A neat little story wrapped up in two parts, The Awakening has the pleasant illuson of feeling longer. That’s not to say that it drags on, but it explores its characters well and gets off the stage at about the right time – before you have too much of a chance to find the appearance of the giant Malus face laughable instead of surprising. (Don’t get me wrong, it’s designed well and looks like a lot of work was put into it, but there’s something about that giant face that just screams Sid & Marty Krofft to me.) If anything, the action gets confined to the TARDIS console room too soon.

The Awakening started out as a four-part script called War Game (which would have undoubtedly been changed in deference to the 10-part season 6 epic The War Games), but with all due respect to the writer and his original concept, The Awakening pans out nicely at two episodes. It’s a pity that some of the clunkers from this area didn’t have the good sense to get off the stage at the right time – else they might be remembered as fondly as The Awakening.

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