Revelation of the Daleks

Premise: On the planet Necros, Davros is turning humans into Daleks. The Doctor must deal with assassins, morticians and two factions of Daleks to stop Davros's latest insane scheme.

Notes: While Davros explains how he escaped the space station in an escape pod before it explodes in Resurrection of the Daleks, it is never explained how he survived the Movellan virus. The Doctor's final word "Blackpool" was edited out shortly before transmission. It would've lead into the story to start the next season which would've been titled, The Nightmare Fair, and set in Blackpool. However, the show was put on an eighteen month hiatus and the next season revised so the scene was edited to leave it more open ended.

Verdict: A decent story with most of the same flaws that all other stories from Colin Baker's tenure had. Luckily, it is not as continuity obsessed as some of it's predecessors and Davros is very enjoyable in this serial. The second episode is where it all happens with the first being dull and painfully slow, with the romance aspect adding nothing to the overall story 7/10

The Two Doctors

Premise: The Time Lords send the Second Doctor to stop scientist Dastari's experiments but a Sontaran fleet arrives. The Sixth Doctor must help his earlier self becoming an Androgum.

Notes: Originally to be shot in New Orleans, the setting instead changed to Spain after the original proved to be too expensive. This frustrated writer Robert Holmes as it meant a substantial rewrite and took away much of the humour about the differences between Britain and America that he had originally included. BBC1 controller Michael Grade, along with many other BBC officials, criticised the cannibalistic overtones of this story. These, along with similar elements in previous serials that same year, were what lead to the show's premature cancellation, which would eventually be revised as an eighteen month hiatus.

Verdict: This strong message about eating meat is unfortunately spoiled by a high level of unnecessary violence along with a lack of interaction between the two Doctors. It was great to see the Second Doctor and Jamie back one more time and the music for this story isn't that bad at all, considering this is from the eighties 6/10

Vengeance on Varos

Premise: The population of Varos is entertained/controlled via violent TV shows. The Varosian Governor is dealing with Sil, from the Galatron Mining Corporation, who want Varos’s minerals.

Notes: The story was originally written for the nineteenth season back in 1982. However, it was repeatedly pushed back and rewritten until it ended up here. The final draft had many comedic sequences which were either cut or played seriously. One of the ones that was played seriously was the notorious acid bath scene which is criticised by many fans because of it's grim tone and Colin Baker's flippant remark afterwards. This serial was the first to feature Sil (the second being Mindwarp the following year) who was played by Nabil Shaban who was co-founder of the disabled actors theatre group, the Graeae. During the first recording of the noose execution scene, the set colapsed under the wight of all the actors. Luckily, the actors did not have their heads in the nooses at the time. As a safety precaution for when they did,  the nooses were not actually tied up.

Verdict: A thoroughly enjoyable tale with some great action sequences and an intriguingly grim plot. The opening minutes are extremely atmospheric and the sets are very well done. However, the acid bath sequence is deeply problematic and the ending is poorly written and very anti-climactic 8/10

Attack of the Cybermen

Premise: The Cybermen plan to destroy Earth before their original planet, Mondas, is destroyed. On Telos, the Cryons have found a human to help them stop the Cybermen forever.

Notes: This serial introduced a new format which would be used throughout the rest of this season. Episodes were now forty-five minutes long and had returned to the Saturday night slot as apposed to the twice weekly slot of the three previous seasons. The TARDIS changing it's exterior appearance was a publicity effort by producer John Nathan-Turner to increase interest for the new season. Another effort to increase interest was the return of the Cybermen along with many continuity references, some dating as far back as the first serial, An Unearthly Child.

Verdict: Sagging under the wight of all the continuity, Attack of the Cybermen turns out to be a rather uninteresting spectacle featuring bad music and a lot of needless violence. However, the scenes in the sewers and the tombs are particularly atmospheric and in some scenes the Cybermen are particularly menacing 5/10