Doctor Who Classic Review - Arc of Infinity

[@Companion92]

I love how Five meets a guy on Gallifrey who wants him dead and is like "ah yes. This is gonna be my next face"

[@Raziel236]

It was funny how you mentioned Omega's smile as unsettling suggesting it was meant to convey malevolence. I consider it as a genuine smile as he's just happy to be alive properly for one brief moment and returned to childlike innocence with the simplicity of the situation.

[@jacklawrence2212]

That's absolutely right. It's a true redemptive moment - and a sad one because it isn't going to last.

[@ftumschk]

7:23 - the "kind of puppet show" in Amsterdam is a steam-powered street organ. Amsterdam is well known for them.

[@tardisnet9487]

Honestly keep trying with Peter Davison. For a lot time I wasn't a fan and found him too vunreable and lacked the age and alien quality of the character. But over time I've really changed my opinon, you really get a sense age and regret and sense of the stakes on his shoulders and I've really grown to appreciate him.

[@jrbaskind]

The first time I ever saw an episode of Doctor Who it was with Peter Davison. I was put off because this was an episode where his character and the character of Tegan were behaving quite acrimoniously with each other. Thank heaven I let my younger brother talk me into giving the show another look. I decided I liked him after all, and then I discovered all the others. I became a big Who fan, and I have never looked back.

[@benedictcooper3131]

The idea of Omega taking the Doctor's form is explored really interestingly in the Big Finish play Omega. It's great, you should give it a listen.

[@Simon-tu9of]

If you want to watch more of Peter Davison, i recommend: Castrovalva Earthshock (my favourite) Mawdryn Undead The Five Doctors The Caves of Androzani (a must-watch)

[@CouncilofGeeks]

Thing is, I’ve seen four out of five of those already and I’m working on filling in my gaps.

[@Simon-tu9of]

Oh ok😂 most of the other episodes are in my opinion pretty average, like Arc of Infinity was

[@tardisnet9487]

Honestly the Peter Davison stories are very dull and forgettable and quite poor for the most part. I really like Kinda, the Visitation, Earthshock, the Five Doctors and the Caves of Androsani and Castrovalva and Enlightenment are pretty decent but apart from that they're pretty poor Warriors of the deep, four to doomsday, mawdryn undead, terminus and planet of fire are all very poor to me and the Davison era lacks much new ideas or villains or a lot of sense of threat.

[@Simon-tu9of]

Tardis Net In my opinion five’s era was anyway a lot better than six‘s or seven‘s

[@tardisnet9487]

Simon it was better than 6's but I love the 7th Doctor era.

[@alexmarkham728]

The whole tegan story is she ’left’ at the end of season 19 (in time flight) as a kind of ’cliffhanger’ to get people to come back for the next season. She was never actually really gone, she leaves in the last serial of season 19 and comes back in the first serial of season 20. Oh, and yeah, they did recast Omega.

[@paulhammond6978]

Yeah, I think it was a JNT wheeze, but I agree that the fact that the only reason she gets back with the Doctor is a wild coincidence is an incredibly disappointing bit of writing.

[@spencerhjalseth7288]

Great review. I love the war games as well. I cried when he said goodbye to Jamie. And to give Zoey credit, she was more of a Spock-like character early on.

[@elitepower4057]

I tend to look at both Peter Davidson and Sylvester McCoy as fantastic *ideas* for Doctors but are less malleable to different writers and stories so are difficult to write well for. Both can be absolutely terrific when done really well but tend to suffer more than most if in an average or mediocre story because they bring very specific aspects and attributes to the role. Which means both rarely click with me but it gives them a certain freedom to cover certain characteristics of the Doctor other actors struggle to convey at times.

[@SpectrumStorms]

Feel the same way about Davison, disagree with McCoy. I've always felt that McCoy's doctor, along with Capaldi's, Troughton's, Pertwee's, and both Bakers', is still enjoyable, even if the story and characterization is done poorly.

[@robertmcelwaine7024]

McCoy I think was fine up until a point, but at times his acting when having to express extreme emotions like passion or anger where he could be stilted. Just take for example his deliverance of "If they're dead" in series 26's Battlefield. That just couldn't feel any phonier. Great character as Doctirish personae, and from all accounts and what I've seen of McCoy, he's a lovely guy but in terms of his overall acting, it could have been better than what it was. Peter Davison on the other hand I found to be rather bland and harder to connect with. He's a decent actor, but he just didn't work for me as the Doctor.

[@MichaelFreckelton]

I was wondering if you were going to mention Omega's "rubber chicken" minions...

[@johnsensebe3153]

I've always liked Davison's performance in "The Five Doctors". There's some subtlety in how he reacts to former Doctors and companions, especially Susan, his granddaughter.

[@dylhanithayarajah5435]

Do top 10 Doctor Who speeches

[@maxeyre2024]

YES!

[@sirjedisentinel]

I always thought his name was pronounced Michael "Goff"

[@ftumschk]

Correct. It's "Goff"

[@SeanORaigh]

Having the Doctor's second big confrontation with Omega boil down to Pete Davison stumbling through Amsterdam with a limp was certainly a creative choice.

[@DPS31762]

I like Davison as an actor, now, but at the time I didn't like him being the Doctor. I wasn't aware of his work in All Creatures Great and Small and saw him as just a pretty boy cast to attract teenybopper girls to the show. And as the Fifth Doctor, he IS pretty bland, but I think he was intentionally written that way. Four was a very oversized, over-the-top personality, and that bled over into Tom Baker's off-screen behavior. I've never seen anything from people involved in the production of the show in those days say it, but I think they were tired of dealing with Baker's antics by the time he departed, and wrote Five as noble but bland in the hopes that if Davison started acting like the Doctor off-screen, he at least wouldn't be a pain in the butt to deal with. Tegan was an airline stewardess, so her being in a major city with international air connections isn't a stretch per se, but yeah, her being there, specifically, is an unlikely coincidence. As for Nyssa, she wasn't originally intended to be a companion. At some point during the production of The Keeper of Traken, they decided to bring her on board as a companion. I don't know why they made that decision, because it doesn't really appear that they had anything specific in mind as to how to use her. I don't mind the Doctor shooting or killing someone in general; in fact, I don't much care for the modern "no guns, no killing" rule, though it should certainly be a last resort for dealing with a villain. Which was to me, the biggest problem with him shooting the General--the General was in no way a villain; quite the opposite, really, the General was one of the more decent Time Lords we've seen besides the Doctor.

[@Ozzy_2014]

@@HOTD108_ Tom had after 5 and 6 years come to own the role and he was a tyrant on set. Convinced ( rightly) he knew what the role was better than the directors. The trick was stand up to him and he'd respect you. Now he was very motivated by protecting the DR and his image. Conflicts ensued. He wasn't having fun. He and Lalla were fighting irl. So not in best frame of mind. He had threatened to quit after 6th season. Talked back for a 7th. Next season it was John Nathan Turner as producer and they didn't get along. Threatened to quit and his offer was accepted. All there in the behind the scenes making of the stories. Great reason to own the discs.

[@Darren79]

A story that I loved as a novelisation as the ideas are there - they conjure up interesting things (foreign location, gallifrey, spooky crypt, renegade time lord etc) but it's just not tied together with anything interesting on TV. We're not given any reason to care about anything - it doesn't explain why anything is important - it expects you to just know. Davison - he's an actor that flourishes with good direction and inspired scripting but sadly the majority of his time he doesn't get that and he's got nothing to get his teeth into. The previous Doctors had their personality to carry them through the naff scripts but Davison is a blank slate. Yeah giving him more of the Omega stuff would have been great. Nyssa - Sarah Sutton is very sweet but Nyssa was a non-entity guest character upgraded to companion to fill an empty slot and she's performing a role she was never meant to do. Davison tends to flourish when he's against the guest characters than when with his companions (Todd in Kinda for example). Colin Baker - yeah i think you're spot on about his performance in this. There is nothing exemplary about him as Maxil. It's a nothing character. I like Colin but he's not a leading man to me. Design - any given story was given a designer at random, some stories had more money according to what the producer felt the money would be better spent on. How good it look depended on whether the designer was inspired, if the director engaged with them well. So you never know what you're gonna get. And of course the sets would be wheeled in for a day or two them either broken up for further use or thrown away. Such as it was at the BBC.:) Yeah, I generally think Arc of Infinity is such a limp production (Ron Jones the director gradually improved but he just zaps all the energy and creativity from his stories. And it didn't help that the script editor rewrote it and with none of the passion that the original writer Johnny Byrne had for it (when interviewed he had some great ideas but then you see the stories and they're conspicuously absent...). :)

[@jrbaskind]

When you made your comment about the budget, you reminded me of a story I read where someone attached to the show in the 70s ( I don't remember who)commented that if a cast member was truly determined to get a retake of a scene because the prop or scenery malfunctioned, they just started swearing really profusely. Apparently "Auntie Beeb" could tolerate snafus but not nasty words.

[@candoentertainment9118]

This was my 1st Doctor Who story I watched as a kid. Holds a special place for me. Like to see Omega return......

[@mrdoctorgilmore]

Something I hate is how lame the timelords got each time we saw them. They were almost redeemed in the McCoy era, if it wasn't for being cut short before lungbarrow could be aired. Then in the New series they went back to being pathetic.

[@Daelyas]

The Timelords are best when "off screen" ... as in "they did something amazing in the past etc. that is vital for the plot of the episode." Personally I think there has only been one Timelord story (not just with an individual Timelord appearing - the ones actually set on Gallifrey) that portray them 100% "right". The first time they show up in War Games. Very powerful, NON-petty, detached but not "cold"... oh and... NOT MORONS! :D

[@QueenStodge]

10th Doctor to Donna: The universe is pulling us together as I don't tend to meet the same person twice in my travels. Tegan: hold my beer.

[@themastersmadface8241]

I just watched this in my Classic runthrough. Davidson is either my favorite or second favorite so far (behind Tom, obviously). There's something about him I just love. His voice isn't very strong or bold, but I can feel the authority behind his words. My favorite episode of his is definitely Earthshock.(spoilers) I was torn at the end, seeing the broken star on the ground with no ending music, and I didn't even like Adric! (End of spoilers) And I may be a minority about this, but something about Bakers era was just really boring for me. I actually couldn't wait for him to regenerate. Bakers last season was pretty bad in my eyes, the only one I kinda liked was Meglos.

[@lucasdolding6924]

Definitely check out the Mara stories (Kinda, Snakedance) and the Black Guardian trilogy (Mawdryn Undead, Terminus, Enlightenment) if you haven't already for some pretty good Davison stories and to get more of an understanding of 5 and his companions (I also don't like 5 that much and understand how you feel towards him).

[@Yan_Alkovic]

You summed this episode up fairly well when you said "It counteracts the good things with the not-so-good things". Personally I still can't forgive them for bringing back Tegan cause she just bums me out and annoys the living daylights out of me, but I quite enjoyed the Gallifrey stuff, even though it was a bit boring and predictable. What I really liked was Omega. His redesign may not be as intimidating as his previous one, but it's just so wacky and unsettling that it really sells me on the idea of this thing coming from an entirely different dimension. Perhaps Omega had gone so long without seeing his home Universe that his imagination got utterly distorted and this is something that seems normal to him now. Also his minion was freaky AF and wonderfully bonkers and bizarre. As for the story itself - yeah, it was a mixed bag. But personally, this episode does make my top 10 for Peter Davison's era because, well, there aren't that many 5th Doctor stories that I enjoy :P

[@SGMiner21]

I actually really enjoyed this episode, it's not the best Davison story which for me is Resurrection of the Daleks but I found it fun and although Omega was fantastic in the Three Doctors, Commander Maxil makes up for that. Although Castellan is in this story and I ****ing hate him!!! I am not too sure what about it for me makes it so good just I find most if the "bad" things kind of funny in a way instead of actually bad. I would give it a 8.5/10 :)

[@jaded6530]

“Ah yes Nyssa put the thing in the thing and that’ll do the thing to defeat the thing and once we beat the thing we can do the thing to make the thing happen”

[@sirjedisentinel]

You call Davison detached, I call him bland. There is something I've noticed with Davison (for me personally), when the story is really good, I like the Fifth Doctor. But when the story isn't good, I couldn't care less. And that is different from my thoughts about the other Doctors; whether the story is good or bad, I still like the Doctor (I mean Colin Baker is my favorite). But, when the Fifth Doctor is in a bad story, I'm just sort of meh on him.

[@sirjedisentinel]

Speaking of, because of the scene where he shoots the Doctor, Colin Baker likes to joke that he became the Doctor by killing his previous incarnation.

[@D-Cameron]

Michael Gough's surname is pronounced "Goff". The puppet performance is the iconic "punch and Judy" show. You might recall that Matt Smith hid inside the same kind of traditional booth and played the part of Punch ("That's the way to do it" is the only line that's obligatory for Punch, specifically for when he murders his wife and baby) in the Christmas special, The Snowmen.

[@stephenconnell]

Omega had a chance to be returned to the anti matter Universe but he told the Doctor he did not want to go back so the Doctor set the weapon to end his life and he was forced to because of Omega changing back to anti Matter.. This story was part of the redemption of Omega from villain to exalted Timelord Solar Engineer. We start at the three doctors move to Arc of Infinity then to remembrance of The Daleks with the hand of Omega. what happens is Omega returns to his rightful position as only second to Rassalon in Time Lord history and as the man who ignited the power source(using the hand of Omega) that gave the Timelors their power.. Regarding Peter Davison you have to realize he followed one of the most successful actors to play the Doctor Tom Baker who had taken the show into the Stratosphere with his larger than life persona and eccentricities and exposed it to the American market who all of a sudden woke up and realized there was something more than Star Trek in the Science fiction Universe!! Peter davidson was following a juggernaut and played the character less assured of himself than the assured almost god like nature of Tom Baker's Dr and he admitted in an interview he left he show too soon just as he was finding his feet as the Dr but what was done was done and he was replaced by Colin Baker . One last point; Dr who was fortunate to have the services of three fine character actors in Hartnell ,Troughton and Pertwee who all love the show and believed in it then with the foundations solidly established a Tom super nova Baker came along at the right time as the producer of Dr Who wa s pushing into the US marketplace and the over the top Baker hard to deal with on set at times was the ideal person to spear head the Dr Who Beachhead in the Us and the rest is history.even with the 18 month enforced series holiday. proving you can't keep a good Dr Down. Sorry for the long winded piece but I've been watching since the 60s and i tend to like my Dr. Nuff said.

[@robertmcelwaine7024]

In regard to Colin Baker, I thought he made a decent Doctor, it's just that some of the stuff he had to work with in terms of the scripts he was given didn't do him any favors, and he did the best he could with it. I mean it's to his credit that he could give a like, "Peri! The tree won't hurt you", without it sounding utterly unconvincing. And that story, had a lot of problems as it was already. By the end of series 22 his personae as the Doctor had already pretty much been established, and I loved his dynamic with Nicola Bryant as Peri (Okay, her American accent although not the worst was a bit wonky at times, however as for her overall performance she was very good. She's amazing in The Caves of Androzani), particularly in Revelation of the Daleks, The Mysterious Planet and Mindwarp. Their relationship can be prickly at times, but you know at the end of the day they have a genuine affection for one another. Similar to what the Seventh Doctor had with Ace. What I also like is how he kind of involves William Hartnell's Doctor in that he could be pompous, but what he manages to do is make him more lovable at the same time. He can be self-deprecating with a wry sense of humor. And having met Colin Baker, albeit briefly he very much, has that kind of sense of humor which was he brought to the role. I just feel at the end of the day he doesn't overall get more credit for what he did with his part in the series.

[@wajidmannan2618]

I thought Borusa's first 2 appearances were very consistent - the strict teacher who is secretly very proud of his pupil. However, here the character seemed completely off. Omega's 5th doctor body reverting to antimatter would generate about enough energy to vaporise half of Lake Geneva. So it would be devastating for people in that part of the world, but I did not understand why they were implying it would have cosmic significance, unless there was something else going on (like opening a gateway to the antimatter universe so more material could come through).

[@casualcraftman1599]

Have nothing against the Doctor killing someone as long as he has a good point. And the Doctor turning a time lord into a reverse Michael Jackson just cause that time lord said bringing back the worst Mary Sue is a terrible idea is a fucking stupid reason to kill.

[@theshadowdirector]

I always saw the Doctor's stance on violence to vary from regeneration to regeneration. Russell really seemed to go for a pacifism angle with Ten (at least when he was writing him). Mofgstt didn't really see it the same way even with Eleven. Twelve had a shorter fuse and a fair bit cynicism so I could se him punching someone or using martial arts. Though id agree having the Docor using a gun for the reason he did in 'Hell Bent' was poorly justified.

[@electerald]

2:27 I like Adric

[@glenmcculla6843]

The best thing about this story is the DVD commentary. I can't believe they threw away a potentially visually intriguing foreign location shoot on such a bleh director. There's a satirical thread on GallifreyBase titled "Ron Jones: auteur" which always makes me laugh.

[@kirstyshadowdancer5095]

What a lot of people loved about Davidson was that he does "kicked puppy" very well. He struggles a lot with anything technobable but when he looks hurt - he does it well. He spends most of his generation guilt-tripping people :D Also the reason she's "insert companion here" is cause Davidson's era used a lot of different writers. And not all the the writers were keeping up with who was currently in or not in the Tardis.

[@alunrundle162]

Davison was designed to be the anti-Tom, I feel. Whereas Tom was somewhat bombastic and used a powerful personality, Peter's was more restrained and quiet. Witness the end of 'Enlightenment' where the Doctor's life is dependant on Turlough's decision and, rather than an impassioned speech, Davison just stands there and lets Turlough make his own decision. A quiet type and he makes it TURLOUGH'S decision rather than one the Doctor influences him into. For me the best of Davison (With Caves Of Androzani topping it, obviously) would include Kinda, Frontios, Enlightenment, The Awakening.

[@BramAPoe]

You should listen to the big finish audio drama "Omega" which is sort of a sequel to "Arc Of Infinity" Omega spends quite a bit of it still in the 5th Doctor's body, the 5th Doctor himself doesn't show up until the end of the 3rd episode of the drama.

[@paulking9476]

Earthshock is my favourite fifth doctor story

[@Simon-tu9of]

Mine too

[@maxeyre2024]

Same, I also love Caves of Androzani (but I mean everyone does)

[@stevenbaxter7162]

Resurrection of the daleks

[@paulking9476]

Steven Baxter yeah that's probably my second or third favourite

[@peterd440]

Nothing beats watching Beryl Reid drunk.

[@theginganinjaa97]

As He Who Moans would say "oh ma ga!, It's omega.." lmao

[@casualcraftman1599]

I don’t remember much of this one, I might as well rewatch it now. I’m shocked that I don’t remember omega return.

[@RileyScarletSpiderGirl]

Say what you will about the writing all you want but I immensely disagree that Colin was ever bad as the Doctor he always shone through bad scripts

[@ScottsThoughts]

For me I really like Peter Davison as the Doctor, that being said. His stories can be hot or cold. Caves of Androzani is still by far the best.

[@highvoltage7797]

I disagree on this era being for children as JNT (John Nathan Turner) made a conscious effort to move away from the silliness of the Graham Williams era. I think he succeeded for the most part and I think this is most evident in the death of one of his companions. There are other factors that showed it was not just for kids such as the increased level of horror and blood. It could be childish but I don’t think that makes up the majority of his era.

[@robertmcelwaine7024]

I agree that the Doctor's reasons for killing Omega in The Arc of Infinity were more warranted when compared with Hell Bent. It struck me as too out of character for him to have done something in the context of his intention, and if it was justified. Because in doing so he created a situation that has had a much more negative impact. Killing Omega, who Nathaniel rightly points out was going to die anyway to save countless many other lives was therefore the right thing for him to do.

[@matwells3222]

Arc of Infinity slotted somewhere in the middle of Davidson's stories for me. I agree with you on 5th performance here, but he's always great for me, given he's my favourite Doctor. Nyssa my favourite companion, but she never did have much to do until her exit story. Tegan for me is just annoying. Omega is one of classic's better villains, but I preferred him here than in the Three Doctors, but that's just my taste. If you want to watch better Davidson stories id recommend Kinda and Snakedance (don't know if you've seen them), but AOI was fine

[@jacklawrence2212]

'Impulse laser...?' the worst, most heavy handed and redundant line uttered by someone about to be killed with an impulse laser in DW history. (And I actually like Arc of Infinity.)

[@richardbennett2085]

Davison comes across well in Frontios I thought

[@RoseBunneh]

I didn't have much issue with Tegan being in Amsterdam. When we first met her in the English Countryside, back in Logopolis, it was established that she was an airline stewardess. I just figure that after she parted with the Doctor, she went back to work and was in The Netherlands for that reason.

[@themastersmadface8241]

Rose Redd She got fired.

[@solekman916]

Watch caves and you'll fall in love with Davison

[@CouncilofGeeks]

Already did. It didn't happen.

[@gabe9296]

I was just watching this episode and got to the part with the carnival where Peter Davidson looks at the child that just runs into the pack and past him. I am confused cause it sounds as though you are saying he is reacting as The Doctor but in that scene at that moment he is Omega but in The Doctor's shape. As Omega it is in a way less unnerving to me whereas if he looked at him that way as The Doctor it would have been weirder to me.

[@frankbrody239]

Maybe it's just nostalgia for me, but I always liked the Peter Davidson era. Looking back, some of the episodes do not stand up so well. Mostly that's due to budget, but some of the shows are just bad in my opinion. I hated the Mara, and Black Orchid didn't have to exist, in my opinion. But I loved most of the eps from Mawdryn Undead onward. I think you would really like Resurrection of the Daleks, great Dalek story that moves the whole Dalek civil war arc forward, and Caves of Andrizoni is the best regeneration episode since The War Games; again, in my opinion.

[@RichardM-kv4uu]

There's no right or wrong way to say Omega.

[@tardisnet9487]

I think the sets in Classic Who are actually really great but are just badly lit.

[@NewtonDKC]

The puppet show is Punch and Judy, a traditional European children's puppet show for fetes and carnivals and whatnot (and I think a version also appears in the next story Snakedance?). Hoping I didn't read too much darkness into your take but oddly I thought Omega's smile to the little boy was a sign that Omega could be kind. Has been years since I saw it but at the time I remember thinking it was because he just wanted a son and family and normal life which and been denied to him to give Time Lords the power of time travel. But now I'm getting stranger danger alarms. I wonder if it's the media exposure of pedophiles that makes it seems unsettling to you versus me thinking it was innocent (and that was definitely before I understood child predators and such)? But then I always thought Omega was more tragic than evil, essentially a Time Lord heroic explorer astronaut that got trapped and forgotten while society enjoyed the advances his sacrifice allowed. Which he pretty much claims himself in The Three Doctors, less so here. I absolutely love your idea that Omega in the Doctor's copied body should have had an episode or two to explore...dang, can you imagine if he somehow fooled Nyssa and Tegan into thinking he was the Doctor and they left the real Doc behind and only gradually began to realize the horrible mistake they had made and were now trapped travelling in time with a villain? The Doctor meanwhile on Eartn could have called up UNIT to help contact the TARDIS (Maybe using old TARDIS parts in his UNIT lab when he was the 3rd Doctor) as this would have been far more worthy a story for the Brig than Mawdryn Undead and still in keeping with Season 20's returning villains and characters from the past 20 years. It could even be that Omega eventually willingly returns the TARDIS and Tegan and Nyssa as knowing makes hi realize the Doctor is good and that he just can't exist in this universe, making Omega that much more tragic a figure. That would have been an awesome Arc of Infinity indeed!!!!

[@Reprodestruxion]

“Bangs the console”

[@danielbridger7113]

can u review robots of death please? the sandminer robots are the no.1 villains i want to return

[@CouncilofGeeks]

I’ll get around to all of it eventually.

[@danielbridger7113]

i did NOT expect a response after i stuck around till the end and heard i had to be a patron to nominate, i dont what to say but thank u so much

[@pablobratcat]

Like Nightmare in Silver?

[@rocklobsterjwt]

Good justification for killing Omega.

[@1greatfinkerofrtimes381]

I really liked the 1st half of " Arc of Infinity" , however the 2nd half not so much . However it's still worth owning if for nothing else than to see Colin Baker shoot Peter Davison with a ray gun . Oh yeah I also disagree , because I really liked Nyssa more than I liked Tegan who never seemed to want to do anything , and was over mouthy , and thought Nyssa had more of a personality .

[@stephenconnell]

Michael Gough is the actor yur talking about. Classic Englis actor.

[@DaveTravelsthroughTime]

Yeah different actor voice ian Collier here Stephen Thorne in three doctors!

[@cable78]

Can you review something from the seventh doctor next time?

[@CouncilofGeeks]

Well next time is something very special but after that yes.

[@benoitassouekotto_7387]

Davison is very good with Big Finish at least (who isn't). Until Thursday they're doing amazing offers on some of his stories on bigfinish.com and I highly recommend checking it out. Try the Fifth Doctor Box set (only £20 ) and 1963:Fanfare for the Common Men (only £6)

[@stevenbaxter7162]

Ned Kelsey where you paid by big finish to promote them

[@IronSalamander8]

This one isn’t great despite some decent ideas. Now I definitely like Davison more than you but this one is below average for sure although not his worst (Time Flight is his worst to me and one of the worst classics period to my eyes). Omega was much better in the 3 Doctors, that’s for certain! The 5th Doctor has some solid stories but some stinkers too and I’d put this one more in the stinkers pile. He has some great ones though: Kinda, Resurrection of the Daleks, Caves of Androzani, the 5 Doctors, and Earthshock stand out as good ones for me.

[@franohmsford7548]

Timeflight's his worst for effects yes BUT his worst story is The King's Demons! BY FAR!

[@ishaandw]

They were planning to bring Tegan back the second they removed her from the show.

[@Reprodestruxion]

Nice seeing Amsterdam though

[@Reprodestruxion]

“Said in a Terry Jones parrot voice”

[@matthewbolitho-jones]

I like Arc of Infinity

[@ealadubh4800]

It's probably *the* most forgettable Davison story that isn't a two-part 50-minute filler, but there isn't anything terribly wrong with it that an edited or added line here and there couldn't fix - but script editing is one of the biggest problems of this period and mainly down to Eric Saward, as dialogue very seldom sounds natural or organic rather than more stilted theatre-speak. It's forgettable not from having nothing noteworthy to commit to memory (although so many other commentors cite the 'airport departure lounge' version of Gallifrey as a cardinal sin in this regard), but from almost going out of its way to make it virtually impossible to remember much that actually happened five minutes after it's over. Ideas are tossed out left and right by the story which are quickly forgotten about without even the most basic explanations; we still don't know what the Arc Of Infinity, the story's title, actually *is* by the end of it. The technobabble here is as bad as it ever gets in that it's the sort that doesn't sound like it could be real even if we don't know what it is, and thus nobody gives the impression that they believe what they're saying, not even when Davison is at his most earnest in trying to convey the crisis to us. It's also ridiculous that a member of the High Council wouldn't know what a 'pulse loop' is, giving us a puzzled "A pulse...loop?" rather than something like "Oh of course, it'll (insert one-line explaination of the device's function)." Little touches like the above would have gone a long way towards actually getting the viewer more invested. Have the sheer coincidences acknowledged as a side effect of Omega's manipulation of events. Show us what the Arc Of Infinity is actually for so we can get how the Doctor's whatever-it-is throws it out of phase. Give us a reason why the Ergon is supposed to look like THAT. If the story can't be bothered to put in the minimum effort with the most important details, then why should we? Oh, and Roger Limb's 'music' is godawful too. You remember the game Mastermind, where you're trying to deduce a hidden four-colour code? It's that in music form only without the limited number of turns, as the same squeaky synth randomly guesses different combinations of four notes over and over and over and over and over again in a desperate hope that one of them will finally click.

[@franohmsford7548]

Michael Gough = Goff!

[@ksaunders4362]

What's with all the Adric hate? What's wrong with him?

[@ksaunders4362]

Yeah, I got nothing but agreement with most of this. Arc of Infinity is one of the worst (not the worst, just one of the worst) Classic Who stories. As regards the actors who play Borusa - that's an unfortunate consequence of how actors work in the U.K. Actors were (it may have changed now, but back when they were making classic Who this was true) only engaged for a season, or sometimes just one show. If the season - or show - finished, they went off and found other work and if you wanted them back, and they were doing other stuff and weren't free, it was too bad and you had to work around it. Omega's minion, the birdlike creature, is called the Ergon. The one thing I will disagree is the coincidence with Tegan being in Amsterdam. She was back on Earth and she'd lost her job so she went to visit her cousin in Amsterdam. Yes, it's a coincidence, but not that contrived of one. I mean, I'd want to see family if I'd just gone through the trauma of losing a friend they way they lost Adric. Plus, I'm not sure it's ever specified where the Doctor dropped Tegan off. It was probably London (the TARDIS has a thing for London, and Tegan was heading to Heathrow to start her new job when she first met the Doctor in Logopolis) and it would have been easier and cheaper to get to Amsterdam than all the way back to Brisbane.

[@RichardM-kv4uu]

Any UK name that ends "ough" it's safe to assume it's pronounced "off"!

[@peterd440]

As not in Wellingborough, Farnborough, Scarborough and Slough.

[@jarjared3522]

If you want technobable mayhem, just watch a season of Star Trek: Voyager and you'll get sick of it showing up anywhere else.

[@CouncilofGeeks]

Hmmmm maybe if we use the phase transducers to send an inverted tachyon pulse through the port nacelle! Side note, anybody else notice it was always the port nacelle? Never the starboard.

[@glenmcculla6843]

Vent dried plasma through the Bussard ramscoop.

[@jarjared3522]

The plasma coils are overheating the time flux compacitor! If we enter the energy flexer into the time vortex manipulator we'll lock onto the time flux compacitor and close the artificial blackhole!

[@elizabeths50]

you know there is no coincidence in Doctor Who.........

[@benjaminmiller1559]

I'm so sorry, I hate the 5th doctors era so, so much :( my favorite episode of his is Caves of Androzani.

[@ftumschk]

That's a shame, because IMHO there are several very good, even great, stories in his era. There's Caves of Androzani, as you say, but then there's Earthshock, The Visitation, Enlightenment, Kinda, Castrovalva, The Five Doctors, Frontios, Resurrection of the Daleks and Planet of Fire. The 5th isn't "my" Doctor, as such, but those 10 stories of Davison's are particular favourites of mine. Of the rest, I'm only really "meh" about Time-Flight, Black Orchid and The King's Demons, but I don't hate any of them, really. That's pretty good going, by any standards.

[@kirstyshadowdancer5095]

Fyi - it definitely was NOT the same actor :P

[@rememo6294]

You should do a video on doctor who theories like weeping angel are time lords, or what the midnight entity was?

[@CouncilofGeeks]

I don't really like fan theory. So that's unlikely.

[@androstempest]

I can’t believe you are suggesting an episode from 1983 suffered for being in “colour”. Come on! Colour tv had been the standard for over a decade by this point. Nothing on British TV was being made in black and white then, I know you are a lot younger than me, and you are seeing this classic era stuff mostly at random it seems, but you need to keep in mind the decision to go full colour on the show was made in 1970. 13 years before this episode aired. Not only was black and white not an option by the time this episode aired, it was no longer relevant to the production. Putting that into context. So basically it’s like comparing technical innovations in series 12 to series 3 of the modern era. Having been born in 1971, the notion that a show made when I was 12 should be in black and white just really bugs me. Sorry.

[@CouncilofGeeks]

My saying that color wasn't kind of Doctor Who is not me suggesting it should have been in black and white in the 80s. I understand that wasn't an option. But it doesn't change the fact that color made the show look worse. If I'd criticized the sound recording quality would you have assumed I meant it should have been silent?

[@somthingbrutal]

to be fair she was an air-hostess

[@CouncilofGeeks]

Not in this. She'd been sacked.

[@somthingbrutal]

ah it's been a long time since i watched it