Four to Doomsday

"No more hunger. No more wars..."

Writer: Terence Dudley

Format: TV

Broadcast: 18th-26th January 1982

Series: 19.02

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan

Synopsis 

The Doctor has returned Tegan to 1981 - the right time, but the wrong place.

The TARDIS has landed on a massive spaceship four days away from Earth. It is the domain of Monarch, a scientific genius of almost god-like power. Monarch rules over three billion of his species, as well as a group of apparently immortal humans from Earth's history. What part has he played in Earth's past, and what are his plans for its future? Will he save humanity from itself, or be its destroyer?

It's four to doomsday, and the Doctor has no time to lose finding out.

Verdict 

Four to Doomsday is a pretty good serial and is better than I think public opinion would have you believe but it certainly does have its problems. I actually think it starts really well and the first two parts are nothing short of excellent, but as things continue in the second half of the story they seem to get very bad very quick and I think the poor resolution that accompanied it is why I had to give a rating lower than I would have liked. It was close to being one mark higher but I just couldn't find it in myself to give it. I thought Peter Davison was magnificent in his first filmed adventure as the Fifth Doctor and even though this was broadcast after Castrovalva, it was not produced in that order which I think makes Davison's performance all the more impressive. He has immediately settled into his role and it's great seeing the mix of youth and wisdom that we would also associate with the Eleventh Doctor. But it's the Fifth Doctor who sets that trend here and he does it so well. I love how authoritative he is to Tegan and Adric and this story highlighted just how much of a lack of pain Nyssa is amongst the somewhat crowded TARDIS room. I'm not sure what it is with this particular foursome but up until Earthshock that console room always seems crowded which never seemed to be the case with the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan or Vicki and then with the Second Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie. I'm not sure if it's the dynamic of the characters but there just seems one too many companions. Maybe that's just my inner disliking of Adric at work. I've never been a fan of him and I highly doubt that I ever will be now. He just doesn't work for me and my reasons were seen clearly when he just blurted out to Monarch everything he wanted to know about the Doctor and the TARDIS. That seemed silly and just reckless and I liked how Nyssa saw that what he was doing was clumsy and wrong. She was lovely in this story, as she usually is, and I love how her intelligence shines through. Tegan was pretty pathetic in this story to be honest and I know it's still early days for her but she needed to get a grip really. I get that she was desperate to go back home after a time of turmoil with the Master but surely after seeing what the Doctor had done she could trust him. The reference to Logopolis was a quite sad one from Tegan's view but her attempts to escape in the TARDIS to Earth to warn them of the Monarch's plan was just stupid. I know I'm sounding harsh but it really was. I loved her in my listening of Hexagora last week and I was looking forward to seeing her in a televised story again but I think I'm going to have to seek her later adventures where her character has grown. I thought the Urbankans were an intriguing race and although they didn't seem to do much other than sit down, they were still somewhat effective. Monarch was obviously the head of the goings on and didn't even get out of his chair until part four but I actually thought Persuasion and Enlightenment were the best of the trio that seemed to be in control of the race. Their reverting to the drawing that Tegan made was a good cliffhanger but I think the part three cliffhanger was the best. The Urbankans having visited Earth numerous times in its past and picking up different cultural people was intriguing and what they were doing was just bonkers but that's the feeling I got from this race. The resolution at the end worked a little for me but the way the Doctor reached the TARDIS was just awful. Truly awful. Throwing a cricket ball in space and catching it to gain momentum? Nah, that wouldn't work and I wasn't buying it one bit. I thought it was really disappointing and I could let the poor special effects pass because it was broadcast over thirty years ago, but that resolution was poor which was a shame. Overall though, more than good in places but sadly some poor moments in the second half that let things down. 

Rating: 7/10