Story: The Visitation
Written By: Eric Saward
Length: 4 Episodes
Year: 1982
This is a pretty good one. "The Visitation" has the Doctor yet again trying to take Tegan back to Heathrow Airport, which is a running theme throughout the season. He makes to Heathrow this time, unfortunately he is just a couple centuries too soon. You can tell that Peter Davison has really settled into the role and he feels very much like the Doctor in this one.
What they find in 17th century England is some Sea Devil rip-off monsters causing some havoc. So the Doctor puts a stop to them of course. He does so without the use of the sonic screwdriver, which is destroyed in this story. JNT felt it was an easy out for writers and decided to get rid of it. Whats hilarious to me is that they were hardly ever using by this point, why even bother destroying it? Just don't have the Doctor use it. Not a single person would have noticed. It would have made more sense for that kind of action today, for he uses it every episode in some way.
One thing I noticed in my rewatch of this story, is that both Tegan and Nyssa seem to have a role, but Adric is just in the way. Sure, plenty feel that Tegan was annoying, but I like her. Nyssa is a great companion that was underused and underdeveloped (and overcovered!). A team of Davison with just Tegan and Nyssa would've been loads of fun to watch, but Adric is an annoying smarty pants kid who is portrayed by Matthew Waterhouse both inconsistently and irritatingly.
Anyhow, the Doctor does defeat our villains, then manages to start the Great Fire of London on his way out...woopsie daisy! "The Visitation" isn't a perfect story, but in a time when the writing and production was beginning to weaken, it's nice to see a story work this well with some good performances.
NEXT TIME: A Historical? What!?
Written By: Eric Saward
Length: 4 Episodes
Year: 1982
This is a pretty good one. "The Visitation" has the Doctor yet again trying to take Tegan back to Heathrow Airport, which is a running theme throughout the season. He makes to Heathrow this time, unfortunately he is just a couple centuries too soon. You can tell that Peter Davison has really settled into the role and he feels very much like the Doctor in this one.
One thing I noticed in my rewatch of this story, is that both Tegan and Nyssa seem to have a role, but Adric is just in the way. Sure, plenty feel that Tegan was annoying, but I like her. Nyssa is a great companion that was underused and underdeveloped (and overcovered!). A team of Davison with just Tegan and Nyssa would've been loads of fun to watch, but Adric is an annoying smarty pants kid who is portrayed by Matthew Waterhouse both inconsistently and irritatingly.
Anyhow, the Doctor does defeat our villains, then manages to start the Great Fire of London on his way out...woopsie daisy! "The Visitation" isn't a perfect story, but in a time when the writing and production was beginning to weaken, it's nice to see a story work this well with some good performances.
NEXT TIME: A Historical? What!?
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