12 – Twelfth Season – Tom Baker

Robot

This story introduces the Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker, as well as a new companion Harry Sullivan, played by Ian Marter. Marter had previously appeared in Carnival of Monsters in a minor role, but now Baker was to have two companions for a time since Elisabeth Sladen would continue as Sarah Jane Smith. And it also marks the end of UNIT as a regular feature on Doctor Who. And the production team of Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks also goes away after this, with Philip Hinchcliffe as the new Producer and Robert Holmes as the new Script Editor.

A group of disaffected scientists has decided that they are smarter than everyone else, so they should rule. This becomes an essentially Fascist movement that includes uniforms similar to the SS. The thing is that they have developed robot made of “living metal” and apparently indestructible, and have stolen the plans for a disintegrator gun and made one. They have also somehow connected to the launch facilities of the various nuclear powers, but don’t ask how this works. The robot has a “Prime Directive” taken directly from Asimov’s First Law, and a lot of the plot is a take on King Kong.

Overall, this is not the most brilliant Doctor Who story ever penned, but Tom Baker is now a refreshing change of pace. He is very different from Jon Pertwee, with a mischievous grin and a twinkle in his eye. And he seems to be totally in character right from the start. This story does hold promise for what is to come.

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The Ark in Space

The Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Harry Sullivan arrive on what appears to be a derelict space station (Nerva), but then Sarah Jane is placed on a couch that is actually a transmat and is sent to be placed in suspended animation. It turns out that this is not a derelict, but a space station set up to preserve the human race from deadly solar flares, and all the people on board are in suspended animation as well. They have way overslept, though, and this turns out to be because something cut the wires controlling many of their systems, and when Harry discovers the mummified corpse of a giant insect, the cause starts to become clear. And they find some green slugs that are the larval form of the offspring. The people in suspended animation start to wake up because the Doctor repaired the wires that the insect had cut, and then the commander of this station is infected by one of the larvae and starts turning into one of the insects. We learn that they are called the Wirrn, and they have a plan to take over the space station and use the suspended humans as a place to put their eggs so that when they hatch they can absorb the humans as food, like the parasitical wasps.

From here it’s a basic base-under-siege story with the Doctor looking for a way to defeat the Wirrn and save the humans. This is a good story, and is famous for the monster made of green bubble wrap. A cheesy effect, perhaps, but it is a good story.

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The Sontaran Experiment

This little 2-part story is a direct follow-on the The Ark In Space. At the end of that previous story the Doctor, Harry, and Sarah transmatted down to Earth to fix the wonky transmat device, but then they fall afoul of some people in space suits. These astronauts answered a distress call, but once on Earth their spaceship was destroyed. It turns out that behind all of this is a Sontaran intelligence officer who is experimenting on the humans to discover their weaknesses prior to mounting an invasion from a fleet in space. considering that the entire human population of Earth right now is about one half-dozen, you wouldn’t think they would need a lot of data, but then Sontarans are very methodical. After defeating and killing the Sontaran, the Doctor uses the Sontaran communicator to contact the Sontaran fleet leader and tell him they killed the intelligence officer, they have have all of the plans of the invasion, and will destroy any ships that dare to enter Human space. Then they transmat back to the Space Station Nerva.

Interestingly, The Ark In Space was shot 100% in the studio, with no location shooting. But The Sontaran Experiment was shot 100% on location, with no studio shooting.

Note: Tom Baker broke his collarbone while filming this story. He probably should have used a stunt man for that scene.

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Genesis of the Daleks

As the Doctor and his companions attempt to transmat back to the Ark, they are intercepted by the Time Lords. The Time Lords are now very aware of the danger the Daleks pose, and send the doctor back to when the Daleks originated on Skaro, with a mission to prevent the Daleks from being created, or if that is not possible, find some weakness that can be exploited against them. This plunges the team into the ongoing war between the Kaleds and the Thals, and introduces the character of Davros, creator of the Daleks. He gave them the name as a rearrangement of Kaled. The Kaleds are facing a problem of mutation mutations caused by the radiation released by the weapons of war, and Davros is their chief scientist. He says he has a plan to help the Kaleds survive by accelerating their evolution and placing the creatures into machines that provide mobility, but he is secretly creating a race of monsters. In the end, the Daleks escape Davros’ control, kill the remaining non-Dalek Kaleds, and appear to kill Davros, though we know he appears again in later stories.

A key plot point comes when the Doctor has a crisis of conscience about implementing the genocide of the Dalek race. He hesitates to do it, and in the end realizes it would have been too late anyway as Davros had already created enough Daleks that they would not be wiped out.

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Revenge of the Cybermen

The team, having concluded their business with the Daleks, resume their trip to the Nerva, but arrive thousands of years before the events of The Ark In Space. This means the TARDIS is not there when they arrive. There is a crew on board, but most of them are dead, and it turns out that a Cybermat is responsible for giving people a fatal disease that kills in minutes. And there is a suspicious character (Kellman) on board who is part of this. The Cybermat points to the Cybermen, of course. There is a nearby planet, Voga, which is the enemy of the Cybermen, and is loaded with gold deposits, which are deadly to the Cybermen. Kellman turns out to be double agent who is actually working with some of the Vogans to destroy the Cybermen, but he dies and no one seems particularly sad about it. In the end, of course, the Doctor and the TARDIS team destroy the Cybermen, the TARDIS finally gets back in time to meet them, and away they go. This story is famous for the Doctor saying “Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!”

Reviews

Season 12

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