Doctor Who - Four to Doomsday | William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton

Doctor Who - Four to Doomsday | William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton | Thought Provoking Fare - An Idea Story more so than an Action story

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Doctor Who - Four ...

	Doctor Who - Four to Doomsday William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton BBC Warner, 2002 average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) discovers that his attempt to return Tegan (Janet Fielding) to Heathrow Airport has brought the Tardis to a spacecraft that appears abandoned at first, but actually carries a force of frog-like aliens that may challenge the future of humankind on Earth. Also featuring Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse). 96 minutes.

Love it!

I absolutely love this story. Tegan is a great companion, showing off those natural human traits many of us really tend to have. Poor Adric hadn't had decent writing since he was with Tom Baker's Doctor, and that is when Matthew Waterhouse showed great potential as Adric. Then everything changes, two girls come aboard and the Doctor regenerates. This is actually the first story to be taped (as the hair on everybody is much shorter) People say Tegan overreacted when she stole the TARDIS and was able to fly it out of the ship. But she wanted to warn Earth what was going to happen. Of course something happens to Nyssa and she always has to be rescued, this is why she isn't part of the next episode, Kinda. Adric's chauvinist remark and Tegans reaction, wonderfully acted out by Janet Fielding, was great. You could feel the tension between those two the most, and Nyssa did feel a bit upset as well, but being a more boring character than the high-strung Tegan, she doesn't say much. Peter Davison is one of the best as the Doctor, and it's great to see him in a more serious role than a drunk young vet in All Creatures Great and Small.

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Thought Provoking Fare - An Idea Story more so than an Action story

This is one of my favorite Doctor Who stories. This was the first episode filmed with Peter Davison as the 5th Doctor, though it was his second one to be aired. Some of the critques of this story claim that the plot developes too slowly, I don't agree. Its true that apart from the 3rd episode cliff hanger and the last 7-8 minutes of episode four, there are not many action scenes. The first 2 cliff hangers reveal a new major revelation to the plot.

The Story takes place on an Urbankan ship which is led by Monarch. Where the story shines is in the strong roles of the Doctors 3 companions. Adric, Nyssa and Teagan worked together better than any other trio. Each has specific skills, Adric is a genious in math, while Nyssa has a background in biological engineering. Teagan is the only Earthling and is very strong willed, and a bit uncertain about the Doctor. She tends to set out on her own a lot and create a good amount of friction between her and the Doctor as well as Adric. She does not take everyone at face value as many earlier companions who just tagged along did. This helped to give this episode more bite.

Much of the show involves the Doctor and his 3 companions exploring the ship, often times seperate from each other so that by part 3, they all have a different opionion about Monarch's motives. The Doctor has to spend a great deal of time convincing Adric to help him instead of Monarch.

The inside of the Urbankan ship was designed very well and doesn't look that dated even today. The outside of the ship is not as convincing but is adequate and is only shown briefly.

Four leaders from ethnic earth Races are on the ship. Each Ethic group; Chinese, Greece, Australian Aboriginy and Myan, have a dance or entertainment showcased. These dances are well costumed and add even more richness to the splendid backdrop for the story.

Peter Davison plays the Doctor more on a even keel than Tom Baker's eccentric Doctor. One of the 5th Doctors strengths is he spends much more time planning things out and does not rush into action pre-maturely. He also relies more on his companions skills in science and math than did the 4th Doctor.

The first time I watched this episode I thought the ending was paced a bit fast with things wrapped up quickly and not totally explained, this happened commonly in Doctor Who, sometimes due to time constraints. Every show can be nit-picked. One thing I didn't like was when the Doctor went into a trance to conserve oxygen it seemed more like he was hyper-ventilating.
This is an episode that I never tire of watching.

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Peter Davison is the best Doctor Who ever!

This is a slightly biased view, but I think this story is great, a little slow and more reliant upon dialog than action than usual, but still intelligent and interesting stuff. Davison is my favourite Doctor and he is NOT WEAK, he is deliberately placed into the underdog position by the writers to create suspense, he has to struggle against the odds, and it takes strength of will and courage and determination to win through when people no longer respect your authority because you look younger than you are. Robbed of the power to order people around, this Doctor has to do things for himself, like shooting the Cyberleader, bombing the Daleks and in this case fighting androids in space and rescuing the drifting TARDIS.
Yes, this is one of the slower stories and yes, his era features Timeflight and Terminus, as well. But let's not forget Tom Baker's appalling Robot, Revenge of the Cybermen, the dreary planet of evil and Android Invasion and Hand of Fear all in the "golden age". Davison had gems like Earthshock, Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, Frontios, Visitation and Caves of Androzani, easily a match for Tom's top six! This story is a lesser example of his era, but Stratford Johns is cool and compelling as the alien who seems so mannered and polite and is insane enough to think he is God, underneath! Philip Locke (Thunderball) chills us as he reveals he is an android who used to be human, and the finale in space, while typically outrageous and stretching the scientific credibility, is certainly a very well done and engaging four minute FX sequence, for a low budget show. And the sets by Tony Burroughs are just brilliant! This is the story which kicks off the Davison era for me, and it is a great way to start. At first, the new crew totally fail to get along, just like in the Hartnell days. They learn to accept each other as they go along, only to lose Adric tragically in Earthshock...but that's another story!

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reviews: page 1, 2

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