This is not just a Doctor Debut Story, but it was the story that re-debuted the series in general and made it a success all over again. Writer Russell T. Davies looked back on past debut stories for this, specifically Spearhead from Space, and then weaved a more modern family story into it. The result is a very good adventure indeed, and a great debut for both Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor and Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler. Let’s take a closer look!
Now, technically the War Doctor made his debut in a 30 second stinger at the end of “The Name of the Doctor”, but that would seem like a waste of that story for the sake of 30 seconds, so I decided to go down the Eighth Doctor route and do John Hurt’s first performance from start to finish in the role as the lead (as Day of the Doctor was covered last year…), meaning we get the first Full Cast Audio Drama to feature him: “The Innocent”, from the “Only the Monstrous” box set. Is it any good? Well… It’s alright, I guess. It’s nice to finally debut my War Doctor image template anyway!
So, yeah, this isn’t Paul McGann’s debut story, that’s obviously the TV Movie, but as that was already covered in the Regeneration marathon I thought I’d follow the other pattern of these debut stories and cover Paul McGann’s first full story as The Doctor, which release-wise is Storm Warning. It also neatly crosses over with the “Audio / Comic Companion Debut Story” marathon I’ve been doing on and off (though not quite in the right order) as it features the debut of Charley, one of the more memorable and iconic Eighth Doctor companions. So… let’s get to it!
The debut story of Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor is… not great. While thankfully it’s no Twin Dilemma, it’s a bit of a mess with characters running around seemingly just to eat some screen time up. Still, I don’t hate it, in fact the next two stories are so bad that this and the fourth and final Season 24 story “Dragonfire” look like good in comparison! (though trust me, this isn’t actually good…) Let’s take a look then, at Time and the Rani.
How to ruin a Doctor Who story: either have a crap plot, cast child actors who are so awful that they were clearly only hired because they were twins, cut the budget but try and realise the script anyway rather than alter it, or write The Doctor to be a complete selfish crazy person who is thoroughly unlikable and have him strangle his own companion in a fit of paranoid rage. How to make a properly awful Doctor Who story: do all of the above, at the same time. Welcome to The Twin Dilemma!
Castrovalva is the first story where the plot properly revolves around the after-effects of the regeneration, after the last three were pretty much regular stories with a new actor in the lead role. The story features our new Doctor in a weakened state, physically and mentally, leaving him sidelined for portions of the story (though not as sidelined as Adric!). Castrovalva also features The Master, making it three in a row for Anthony Ainley. So let’s see if this jumble is a fun mix or not!
Unlike Spearhead From Space, Robot doesn’t try and reinvent the wheel, while it introduces a very different take on The Doctor, it otherwise feels like a regular Pertwee story. This is something will change immediately after this (in fact the remainder of this season feels like a fresh new show in tone) but as for “Robot” it’s very much still in the past. Does that make it bad, though? No, of course not. It’s a fun story, though one that may have set its heights too high compared to its budget. Let’s take a look!
In a lot of ways Spearhead From Space is nearly as significant as An Unearthly Child as it’s the first time the show goes through what feels like a proper reboot, and does so successfully. Gone is everything we associate with the character, including its lead actor, replaced with a new Earth-based set up with a group of soldiers who battle alien threats… and it’s in colour no less! The fact that in four episodes they manage to establish the new status quo, introduce new characters and a new Doctor, and create a brand new alien species (the Autons!) is quite the feat. So let’s take a look in more detail, shall we?
I’ve experienced Power of the Daleks, which is entirely lost, four different ways now. I first listened to the soundtrack CD, then I watched a photo recon before watching the animated version after it came out two years ago. For this review I watched the blu-ray colourised version of the animated edition… I wonder what will happen when I watch it a fifth time! Anyway, Patrick Troughton’s debut story is a great one, it doesn’t actually hang on the idea of a new Doctor very long and instead tells a tense Dalek story where for five episodes the viewers watch on, waiting for the Daleks to turn on the humans, and when they do: yikes! Modern Who wishes it could have Daleks this threatening… Let’s take a closer look, then!
How can I properly frame the importance of this episode? It should seem obvious being the very first episode, but it establishes pretty much everything: The Doctor is an alien with a police box that’s bigger on the inside than the outside, that can travel in both time and space. The imagination in Episode 1 for the time is still great today, it’s just a shame about Episodes 2 – 4, which decides to tell a relatively slow story about cavemen… Ah well, let’s have a good look overall and kick off the Doctor Debut Story countdown, shall we?
Hogan Reviews 