Story: The Deadly Assassin
Written By: Robert Holmes
Length: 4 Episodes
Year: 1976
"The Deadly Assassin" is a huge, in X-Files terms, mythology story for Doctor Who. Its the first time back to Gallifrey since its inception in The War Games, besides the brief appearance in The Three Doctors. It also is the only instance of Classic Who in which the Doctor has no companion. It features the Doctor's return to Gallifrey, and assassination plot on the President of the Time Lords and the return of...The Master.
The Master has been missing from the series since Season 10, before Roger Delgado's untimely death. He is now performed by Peter Pratt, in a tarnished body, that looks battered and skeleton-like.
The story introduces all sorts of great continuity problems that cause fans who care about that kind of thing take issue with. It introduces the 13 Regenerations limit. Which as many have said before seemed like forever away, but in next year we will have Doctor 11...so it could serve as a story problem, not in that they won't completely disregard it (cause they will and should), but if they don't comment on it when it happens...uber-geeks will die of sadness, and if they do call too much attention to it it could confuse non-classic fans. The limit was created purely for story point of the Master, in his gothic scary nature...which was made to make up for the void of Delgado.
It also introduces the Eye of Harmony, which makes only some sense here and even little sense in the TV Movie years later. The other things it introduces is the less ominous and all powerful kind scary time lords, and replaces them with the kind of boring mostly political lame time lords.
Now I like "The Deadly Assassin", its actually one of Baker's best stories, truly a classic for the fans. It causes these problems, which don't bother me, but the story itself works. Through all the continuity issues and confusing plot points, the story works, and the battle of wits in the Matrix is great.
NEXT TIME: The Tower Of Imelo
Written By: Robert Holmes
Length: 4 Episodes
Year: 1976
"The Deadly Assassin" is a huge, in X-Files terms, mythology story for Doctor Who. Its the first time back to Gallifrey since its inception in The War Games, besides the brief appearance in The Three Doctors. It also is the only instance of Classic Who in which the Doctor has no companion. It features the Doctor's return to Gallifrey, and assassination plot on the President of the Time Lords and the return of...The Master.
The story introduces all sorts of great continuity problems that cause fans who care about that kind of thing take issue with. It introduces the 13 Regenerations limit. Which as many have said before seemed like forever away, but in next year we will have Doctor 11...so it could serve as a story problem, not in that they won't completely disregard it (cause they will and should), but if they don't comment on it when it happens...uber-geeks will die of sadness, and if they do call too much attention to it it could confuse non-classic fans. The limit was created purely for story point of the Master, in his gothic scary nature...which was made to make up for the void of Delgado.
It also introduces the Eye of Harmony, which makes only some sense here and even little sense in the TV Movie years later. The other things it introduces is the less ominous and all powerful kind scary time lords, and replaces them with the kind of boring mostly political lame time lords.
Now I like "The Deadly Assassin", its actually one of Baker's best stories, truly a classic for the fans. It causes these problems, which don't bother me, but the story itself works. Through all the continuity issues and confusing plot points, the story works, and the battle of wits in the Matrix is great.
NEXT TIME: The Tower Of Imelo
Comments
Post a Comment