Hogan Reviews

One of my all-time favourite seasons of the show has found its way to Blu-Ray so it’s time to checkout a story from the set, and once again I’ve gone with the story its been the longest since I’ve seen it and with a season of four stories all of which I’ve watched loads that was hard to figure out. Still, I’m pretty sure Ambassadors of Death is it, and it’s my least favourite of the season. Still, a least favourite in a favourite season is still good, right…?

The story is mostly set in a space centre as an astronaut has been sent to make contact with Mars Probe 7, which was due to come back from the red planet but contact was lost. The Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) is at the space centre as its happening but The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Liz (Caroline John) are back at UNIT HQ as the Time Lord has removed his TARDIS console and is trying to get it working again. The broadcast is on the TV in the background though and after some amusing time jumping shenanigans they hear a horrible ear-piercing sound at the same time as the people in the space centre, just as they lose contact with their astronaut. The Doctor recognises the sound however so he and Liz make their way to the centre where we can focus on our extras for the story. Ralph Cornish (Ronald Allen) is in charge on the centre and is very much in the corner of The Doctor et al, General George Carrington (John Abineri) is a higher up military man who is swiftly shown to be a key villain in the story alongside corrupt politician James Quinlan (Dallas Cavell) and career criminal and master of the factory sabotage scene Reegan (William Dysart). We then round out the main cast with corrupt and way over-the-top-accented scientist Dr. Taltalian (Robert Cawdron) and a more cowardly scientist forced to work for the villains against his will in Lennox (Cyril Shaps).

The Doctor wonders if this will be the last time he and a companion are locked up somewhere…

What is the villains plan exactly? Well, it’s a slow burn (at seven episodes that shouldn’t come as a surprise!) but basically General Carrington went to Mars in a previous mission and met some aliens, an event that freaked him out so much that he began to plan “for their invasion and attack”. What actually happens though is the aliens send down three Ambassadors in the human space suits via the probe to create peace between the two races but Carrington instead captures them with the idea of learning how to control them and have them attack and “prove” that the aliens are a threat so when the alien spaceship appears on radar (which is does eventually) he can convince the world to train its weapons on it and blow it to bits. What he doesn’t count on are two things: one despite his best efforts to stop a second probe being launched The Doctor is sent into space and meets with the alien’s commander, who spills all the beans when he says he’s keeping the three Earth astronauts hostage until his ambassadors are returned, and two Reegan as once he figures out how to control the aliens he sees how deadly they are he makes his own plans to use them to rob places, though he still follows his orders to keep face.

It’s a fun story but of course with this many episodes to tell it, it suffers from pacing. Now I love Season 7 so I can spend any time with this group of characters and not be bored, but even I have to admit Ambassadors has issues. There are some subplots that work, like the Ambassadors being used as killers and looming over The Doctor as a great cliffhanger, Taltalian being given a briefcase bomb to take out The Doctor otherwise he’ll be outed as a spy, only for the bomb to go off as soon as Taltalian goes to set it because they were just covering up a loose end, or Lennox slowly realising he needs to get out from under the villains’ thumbs and making it to UNIT only to be killed by a radioactive isotope being delivered to him as food. Sadly there are some that don’t, like Liz being captured, escaping in a dramatic chase and then being captured again until the end of the story, or the previously hinted at three or four separate scenes of Reegan breaking into the space station/warehouse and sabotaging something (they really need to up their security!) Then there are some odd action scenes as well, like a good five or six minute shootout in a warehouse between UNIT and a bunch of thugs at the end of Episode 1 that includes close ups of people being repeatedly punched in the face, or scenes of a UNIT convoy being bombarded by bombs being tossed from a helicopter.

UNIT show its not just aliens they can shoot as they take on a bunch of human thugs!

This time round I watched an episode a night, with a break here and there, and it was a good way to do it rather than marathon the story in one sitting (like I otherwise normally would!) but either way I will admit bias when it comes to the Pertwee era, I could still watch it for hours if I had the free time like I used to (well, I guess if I stopped playing games at night I could have the time, but… anyway!) I will say that the video quality is still ropey but the Blu-Ray version is miles better than the DVD version, which itself was miles better than the partially black and white VHS release.

The Continuity:

Reegan sabotages the space centre’s efforts for the second time… or was this the third?

In the opening episode The Doctor references, rather bitterly, how The Brigadier handled the Silurians in the previous story, “and the Silurians”.

Beyond that, not much to say. It’s shown that the aliens in question aren’t from Mars, they just happened to have met humans there, so no Ice Warrior confusion going on. The idea of multiple manned missions to Mars having taken place in the 70s/80s is a little trickier to ignore, but hey-ho. UNIT dating controversies, Time War etc. etc.

Overall Thoughts:

“Oh sorry Doctor, I see you, a deadly astronaut and the corpse of Quinlen are busy. I’ll come back later.”

While “The Ambassadors of Death” is the weakest story of Season 7 it’s still a fun watch all the way through, though I understand if you’re not into the era or its characters then the pacing issues will be harder to ignore, even I find Reegan’s repeated invasions and exploits bordering on immersion breaking. Basically I’d give it a 3 if I were being brutally honest, but the pure fun of this particular era of the show bumps it up one number for me personally, and after all my personal views on things is what this site’s all about!

So by the end of the story The Doctor and Liz are locked up under guard by Reegan while Carrington has taken one of the Ambassadors to the Space Centre to do a public unveiling. Luckily The Doctor manages to get a morse code message that’s picked up by the fresh-faced returning Benton (John Levene), who is now a sergeant. The Brigadier and UNIT arrive (in Bessie as their own trucks and cars were confiscated) and rescue The Doctor and Liz by storming the building and shooting Reegan in the arm for good measure. The Doctor then talks to the two remaining Ambassadors and they agree to come with him and the Brig to the space centre to rescue their ally. This involves standing-off with some soldiers following Carrington and therefore “just doing their duty” having to be radiation blasted to death by the Ambassadors, though to be fair the Brig did give them a chance to stand down beforehand.

The Brigadier saves the day, just in time for the last episode to wrap up. Phew!

Carrington is moments away from creating a major panic by publicly revealing the Ambassador when The Doctor, Liz, The Brig and the two other Ambassadors arrive and although Carrington tries to convince people of the “alien threat” he gives in, claiming he was just doing his “moral duty” as he is escorted off the premises. The Doctor leaves all the clearing up (including getting the human astronauts back down) to Liz as he… can’t be arsed I guess, but gets a good final gag in by going to shake one of the Ambassadors hands before thinking better of it…