Having been wounded as a protector of the King in the holy land in the Crusades, Robin of Lockley (Jonas Armstrong) returns with his servant and best friend Much (Sam Troughton) to Nottingham and his lands, to find everything is changed. The old sheriff has lost power to a new evil man (Keith Allen). The old sheriff’s daughter Lady Marian (Lucy Griffiths) is pissed at him because he chose to leave her for the Holy Land and war, and his hated foe Sire Guy of Gisborne (Richard Armitage) fights for her affections. Robin quickly has his lands taken from him, and becomes an outlaw, joining with other outlaws Little John (Gordon Kennedy), Will Scarlett (Harry Lloyd ) and Allan A Dale (Joe Armstrong) to fight for what is right, and to fight for their King. The Sheriff works with he kings evil brother Prince John, and wants to kill the King and take the land of England into Darkness.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

For the first series Robin won’t kill because he has had enough of killing in the Holy Land, though his sparing of the Sheriff causes more death and destruction than killing him ever could. In the second series we learn that if the Sheriff was killed Prince John would send his army and kill everyone in Nottingham, which makes for a good excuse not to kill him, but does not protect the evil of Guy of Gisborne.

The men are joined by the sarasen woman Djaw (Anjali Jay)

It is relieved that Guy in fact went to the Holy Land to kill the King, and Robin cut his arm. Marrion does not believe him though, and grows closer to the him, spuring Robin’s love. She stays in the palace to spy for Robbin and his men, and to protect her father.

The Sheriff plots with the black night to take over England and install Prince John.

Robbin eventually asks Marrion to marry him!

Eventually they all head to the Holy land, the Sheriff and Guy to kill the King with Marrion forced along, but followed by Robbin and his men. Robbin and Marrion finally declare their marriage vows, but she is killed by Guy as they manage to save the King. Djaq and Will stay in the holy land to be married.

In the third series Robin is disconsolate over Marrion’s death and wants to give up, but is shown he must not by the newly joined preacher Tuck (David Harewood).

Gisborne’s lister Isabella (Lara Pulver) who starts as a love interest for Robin, becomes his biggest enemy, eventually taking over for Sheriff when it seems that Guy has killed the Sheriff. A villager Kate (Joanne Froggatt) joins them, and Much loves her, though she is love with Robbin.

Guy and Robbin’s old hatred is revealed, and they learn they have another brother named Archer (Clive Standen) who created weapons they can use, though is out only for money.

Eventually the Sheriff returns and lays siege to the palace, which Robin has taken to hold for the king, and Robin is poisoned by Isabella who is killed by Guy who also is killed. Archer joins them in the fight, and they blow up the castle and the Sheriff and his men, but Robin dies. Marrion comes to him and takes him away. And the others vow to continue fighting.

••••

Alright, but never felt right, too many concessions to Robin not killing, and letting villains live. And the whole having Marrion go towards Guy, and not believing Robin went on for way too long, making her look fickle, which hurt her character. And her death did not help the story, as Robin seemed to move on too quickly and too easily forgive Guy.

Overall I think it was week writing.

The series starts out following Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfayden) and his team, Zoe Reynolds (Kelley Hawes) and Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo) working at the Grid in Thames House for MI-5. There boss is Sir Harry Pearce (Peter Firth)who always had their back if needed. They are later joined by intelligence analyst Ruth Evershed (Nicola Walker) who is brought in to spy on them, but they catch her and make her a permanent team member. The first season deals with not only the missions to stop terrorism, but also Tom dealing with being in love with a woman and her daughter, and having the relationship torn apart by his job, and his constantly having to lie to her.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The relationship eventually completely falls apart, and Tom is left alone.

Zoe meanwhile has moved in with Danny into his flat as roommates, and he is in love with her, but never gets up the nerve to do anything about it.

One of the better episodes has them running a test to see MI-5′s ability to run in a crisis, and everyone is made to believe that it is real, and it really shows Tom’s abilities to lead, even his readiness to kill people to get the job done.

Tom eventually starts seeing their CIA liaison Christane Dale (Megan Dodds) and keeps doing it even though Harry expressly forbids it.

Tom is framed as a traitor, and everyone turns against him. Harry brings in a MI-6 operative Adam Carter (Rupert Penry-Jones). It turns out that Tom was framed, and in the 3rd series the team must prove Tom’s innocence as an whitehall is trying to get less independent intelligence services, that give them the intel they want in a post September 11th world.

It is found that an ex-CIA agent and his wife who Tom had used their daughter as an agent and she went crazy were responsible, and they get Tom back, but not for long.

Tom is running an MI-5 operative that has been undercover since he got out of college, and made his career on it, and they use him to set up some nuclear terrorists, but Tom realizes he can’t do it and tries to get the man out, but is caught and kicked out of MI-5.

Danny does not take it well and wants to quit, but hangs out. Zoe meanwhile has found a man and gets engaged, though breaks it off when his brother leaks some photos that they had taken for a mission. She then gets in the blame for a mission that went bad and an undercover cop was killed, and Harry can’t protect her, because they can’t reveal the Al QUeda connection. She is given 10 years, but Harry gets her off to Chile and a new life and Danny helps her to hook up with her fiancee.

Danny on a mission with Adam’s wife Fiona (Olga Sosnovska) gets shot and killed, and the whole original team is gone.

Adam is not head of the team, along with his wife, and ends up bringing in a young journalist he meets on a case to work with him. With Danny taking over, the team has gotten much harder. He had to get Danny to kill on a mission. And Adam tortures people when necessary. Tom would go over the line a bit, but usually to help the team, or do something small, while Adam, who had previously been tortured and captured was perfectly willing to do it to others, and to do what is necessary.

We also get to see some of Harry’s dark past, as he is blackmailed form things he had done in the past.

••••

So far an enjoyable show, though I really do think it was better with Matthew Macfayden, but I will continue watching it. Too bad it is not all available to stream from Netflix!

Richard Cypher (Craig Horner) is a woods guide living peacefully in the land of Westland, a land without magic, that is separated from the magical land of the Midland’s which used to separated from the land of D’Hara, but that wall has fallen. While out in the woods Richard runs into a beautiful woman named Kahlan Amnell (Bridget Regan) who is being chased by a Quad of Assassins. Richard helps her, and she uses her magic, confessors magic, which lets her take control of any person she touches (though only once every 2 hours) and they kill 3 of the Quad. The fourth though, goes and kills Richard’s father, and allies himself with Richard’s brother Michael (David de Lautour), who believes the Quad over Richard, and hunts him as a killer. RIchard meanwhile was bit by a strange plant and is only saved by his best friend, the old man Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander (Bruce Spence who is perfect here, though I always picture him from Road Warrior) who has hidden his identity, but secretly is actually Richard’s grandfather and also the First Wizard of the Midlands, who went into hiding, and who Kahlan is searching for. She wants the Wizard to name a true Seeker, who can fight against the evil of the D’Haran king and Magician Darken Rahl (Craig Parker). Zed names the true Seeker, the one he has been watching all his life, Richard, much to Kahlan’s chagrin, and gives him the magic sword of truth to battle evil.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

They trio set out on a journey to stop the evil of Darken Rahl, and end up on many adventures thoughout the midlands.

For a time Kahlan does not explain to Richard about her being a confessor, and never being able to fall in love because if she ever made love to a man she loved, she would lose control of her power in the throws of passion and take control of him, and he would be nothing but her slave. And in the meantime Richard falls in love with her, and when her finds out, it is too late for him as he loves her as she loves him.

They have friends, Richard’s old friend Chase Brandstone (Jay LAga’aia). They meet Richard’s younger sister Jennsen (Brooke Williams) a pristinely ungifted one who no magic can be used against, and is used to by Darken Rahl against her own brother.

Richard is captured by Denna (Jessica MArais) a Mord Sith. Mord SIth are followers of Darken Rahl with an Agiel which they use to torture and break people, but Richard’s love for Kahlan eventually helps him win.

Darken Rahl is searching for the other pieces (there are 3 total) of the Box of Orden which will allow him to take total control of all people in the world, and they must stop him, or get pieces, and Zed manages to get one of them.

Chase is captured, and his wife is poisoned by a form of Confessor magic, and they get a Rada’han which can block magic and would allow Kahlan and Richard to be together, but they give it to Chase’s wife so he can be with his family.

Richard and Kahlan are taken over by the minds of a seeker and confessor from a thousand years in the past who fell in love, and made love, and lost himself to the obsession of the confessors power, and now don’t care about saving anything, but they manage to send them to the underworld.

At the end of the first season, they finally plan to defeat Darken Rahl by having Richard put the 3 pieces of the box of Orden together, which will require Kahlan to confess Richard as they do it, or he will become arrogant and all powerful, but as they do it, a Mord SIth named Cara Mason (Tabrett Bethell) hits Richard with her Agiel, and the power unleashed sends her and Richard into the future.

In the future Kahlan married Darken Rahl, and they had a child who was a confessor who has destroyed everyone, and the son with confessors power is taking over the world. They also learn that Richard is in fact Darken Rahl’s brother. Cara ends up helping Richard, and becoming loyal to him as a Rahl, and they put things right, and manage to return to the present, and Darken Rahl is defeated and sent to the underworld.

The problem is the act of sending Darken Rahl to the underworld using the Boxes of Orden has rent the veil of the underworld and the Keeper of the underworld now has a path into the world of the living and will take over the world, first sending his minions into this world, including banelings. Banelings are anyone who has died and been given a deal by Darken Rahl and the keeper to come back to the world of the living and kill for him, and they must kill each day or they will be sent back to the underworld.

Richard is taken by the sisters of the light to the Palace of the Prophets because he has magic power, and the plan to train him, but they hide the fact that he will be there for hundreds of years, barely aging, and lose all his friends, and the keeper will take over the world. Richard makes a deal with a sister of the dark who serves the Keeper, and she takes his Han (his magic power) and manages to escape, but he has serious enemies in the sisters of the Dark.

We learn more of Cara when she is re-broken, and his spell gets rid of her entire life as a mord sith, but instead ruins the whole quest.

They must now find the Stone of Tears, so Richard can try and close the veil, but a witch has professied that Richard will lose to the Keeper, so they are forced to name a new Seeker, who Cara falls for, but he is killed, and Richard regains his title.

Darken Rahl is brought back to the world of the living and they are forced to team up with him as he has info that he needs.

Kahlan must go to her homeland with Zed to try to stop an evil that has taken over in Adendril, but when they transport she is split and her ruthless side with her power goes with Zed and rules with an iron fist. The unpowered one stays with Richard, and the two must be put back together.

Richard is tricked by the Keeper, who has taken the form of a small boy, but Richard manages to still get the Stone of Tears to where it needs to go, and close the veil, saving the world once again along with Kahlan, Zed and Cara.

****

Really an enjoyable show, not as good as the books for sure, but a fun and enjoyable show with a great cast. And it looks great as well. Well worth checking out.

Professor Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall) works at a university and ends up investigating some strange occurrences in the woods where his wife disappeared in the woods 8 years before. His assistant is Stephen Hart (James Murray) who was also in love with Nick’s wife. Also along for the ride is a eager grad student named Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts). Also in the woods is zoologist Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) who finds a prehistoric flying lizard, and ends up joining the team. They learn of holes in space time continuum where creatures are coming through. The government comes in and hides this, and makes them the lead team along with Claudia Brown (Lucy Brown) from the home office and James Lester (Ben Miller) a senior Home Office Official.

REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS…

Nick soon finds out that Helen Cutter (Juliet Aubrey) his wife is still alive, and not only knows something, she is fact may be behind it.

The team works to find out what is going on and to try and keep one step ahead of Helen, but they never can.

Connor is in love with Abby, but can never do anything about it, as he is too chicken, though he does manage to become her roommate.

Nick and Claudia begin to fall for each other, but Helen tries to keep them apart.

When Tom and Helen go back in time through a wormhole to find out about super predators from the future, Nick returns to find everything changed. Now the team works for the ARC a whole government research facility searching for these anomalies and their cause and what they can do to contain and stop them.

Of course the world is different, as Claudia is not there, but she is replaced by Jennifer Lewis (also Lucy Brown) who steps in as the teams PR officer trying to hide these events from the public.

Of course they don’t all agree with keeping everything secret.

Stephen Hart is killed saving Nick and Helen and replaced by Captain Becker (Ben Mansfield).

Nick then is killed by Helen who sees the Arc as the cause of the destroyed future with the super predators, but Nick manages to hide a device from her, and get it to Connor.

At first Jennifer takes over the team, but she quickly hands it over to former policeman Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng) an action man who the team had run into before, and who would not give up about joining them.

The enemy becomes another government agency who is trying to keep the secrets of the time travel and the predators for themselves.

And of course Helen returns, using everyone, this time her plan is save the earth by destroying humanity before it even starts. She steals the device to track the jumps from the ARC, and only Danny, Abby and Connor can chase her and stop her.

It ends up with Danny being the only one behind Helen, who poisons the first group of neolithic men, but she is killed by a raptor. Danny is still alive, but trapped back in time, but he does find the missing link still alive.

••••

Really a well done show, but it felt like the storyline with Helen did not go where it should have once Douglas Henshall left the show. The show was still enjoyable, but not as good, and felt more like an action show. Still worth watching though.

The show starts with 3 best friends on their way to school for the first day, this is the unruly and womanizing James Cook (Jack O’Connel) the skateboarder Freddie Mclair (Luke Pasqualino) and JJ Jones (Ollie Barbieri) who has some mental problems, but is as sweet as could be. On their way to school they Elizabth “Effy” Stonem (Kaya Scodelario) on her way to school and all three fall in love with her. Effy’s best friend finds that she can’t handle just taking beauty classes, so she joins her friend Effie. Other students are the twins Katie (Megan Prescott) and Emily Fitch (Kathryn Prescott) who could not be more different. Katie always has a man and is very outgoing, while Emily is quite and is fact gay and is love with another student Naomi Campbell (Lily Loveless). Naomi though is straight, and hates that Katie is always giving her shit about trying to seduce her sister, when it fact it was the other way around. On the first day the school lays out new rules, and Effie makes a game of breaking them all basically telling Freddie and Cook that they can have her if they break all the rules. Cook quickly does, and has Effie in the school nurses office, leaving Freddie to pine for the woman he loves (and who Effie actually cares for, but is not willing to ever let her emotions get the best of her). They soon meet Thomas Tomone (Merveille Lukeba) a recent emigrant from the Congo. He is a good kid, and sweet and starts seeing Pandora, but they get in a lot of trouble first, both with a gangster and then with his mom who catches the kids all doing drugs and having sex, and sends Thomas back home for a while.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Naomi, JJ, Katie, Cook, Effie, Tony, Panda, Emily and Thomas

Panda gets quite depressed that Thomas has left and ends up sleeping with Cook before he returns to her. And that isn’t the worst part, because she keeps sleeping with Cook after Thomas returns and of course he finds out pulling them apart.

Effie and Cook keep having sex, and hurting Freddie, who ends up going out with Katie.

Emily meanwhile realizes she is gay. She becomes friends with JJ and gets him a sweet sympathy fuck. And then she finally gets Naomi to start to see that she might love her, and the two become lovers, and seem to really love each other in what seems to be the best relationship of the series. This of course pisses of Katie who is homophobic and wants to run her slightly younger sisters life the way she wants it.

Effy breaks it off with Cook, who she was only using for sex, and wants to tell Freddie, but he has already started seeing Emily. They go out on a camping trip with the group minus Cook (who shows up later on his own to cause trouble) and all do magic mushrooms. Katie is attacking Effy saying not to steal Freddie when Effy fights back and hits her in the head with a rock. Effy then in a psychedelic haze stumbles back and sleeps with Freddie. The next day they wake up and can’t find Katie, and they leave, with Effy quickly calling an ambulance to try and find her. Of course Katie is found and is OK, but tells what Effy did, so Effy goes on the run with only friend she has left, Cook.

Effy and Cook wander around until they end up in the hometown of his dad. And you see where Cook got his obnoxious personality. Effie finally calls Freddie and JJ to come and help Cook and bring him home, and she tells Freddie she loves him. JJ and Freddie arrive and end up in a race that Cook is also in that Cook’s dad bet his boat on to pay off his bar debt. Cook ends up losing, as JJ wins, and his Dad is pissed and almost kills him. Effy and Freddie finally have sex, and they end up throwing Cook’s dad out his boat and heading back to London.

The 4th series starts with a girl at a party where Thomas is DJing kills herself while on Ecstasy and it causes nothing but trouble. A new school principle expels Thomas. And Naomi starts freaking out because she sold the girl the drugs, but it is more than that.

Emily has moved into Naomi’s house with her since her parents are out of town, and her parents nor her sister can accept that she is gay.

Emily starts digging into what happened and eventually finds out that Naomi went to visit a college and ended up cheating on Emily with the girl, and the girl became obsessed with her, took the drugs she sold her and kills herself. Emily is crushed, and though she stays with Naomi, she starts treating her badly and hanging out with other girls.

Effy eventually returns to school, but she is all messed up in a severe depression. And she starts to drag Freddie down, as his grades drop and all he does is stay with her.

Cook freaks out too and beats some guy up, also hitting JJ (which he doesn’t even remember) and also takes the rap for the drugs, but refuses to plead guilty and is eventually sent to jail, but escapes and keeps showing up and forcing himself on his friends.

Effy loses it and tries to kill herself, and is institutionalized. ANd starts seeing a messed counsellor Dr. John Foster (Hugo Speer) who really messes with her brain, brainwashing her to forget her friends.

Katie finds out she has premature menopause and can’t ever have kids, and then they find out their dad lost them their house, and they end up having to move in with Emily and Naomi, though Emily is not happy about it.

JJ starts dating a girl named Lara (Georgia Henshaw) who is a single mother, and starts to come to grips that the drugs the doctor’s are giving him may be messing him up.

Effy returns to school and is given all A’s even though she doesn’t deserve them, but to give the school a perfect record. She goes nuts again though and Freddie and her mother stop her from seeing Dr Foster who messed her up.

Doctor Foster calls Freddie to his house and murders him so he can get back to Effy who he is obsessed with (WTF!!!!).

All the friends have a party and do synchronized dancing (right Cook would do this) for Freddie’s birthday.

We find out that Pandora actually did well in school and is going to Harvard, and so is Thomas who is getting an athletic scholarship, so maybe they will have a chance.

Naomi finally confesses to Emily that she really did always love her, from back when she was supposed to be straight, and they decide to try to work things out.

Cook tracks down Doctor Foster and finds Freddie’s bloody clothes, and we see Dr. Foster hit Cook, but Cook just laughs and runs and attacks him yelling that he is Cook!

•••

WTF! This show so jumped the shark, especially with the serial killer thing. Would have been much more in the vein of the show to have Effy actually kill herself and have the kids dealing with their friends suicide, but a fucking serial killer? You have to be kidding me. I mean the whole Effy storyline just got ridiculous.

And the show just seemed to want to ruin everyone, I mean Naomi and Emily were the one good couple and their relationship got ruined. Pandora was so sweet, but she was fucking Cook on the side, not only cheating on Effy but also on Thomas. Everyone here are just assholes, and it is like they are trying to destroy their friendships and themselves.

And it is really too bad, as it seemed interesting with the 3rd series, but the 4th series is utter crap. I hope the fact that she runners have left the show, will make it better, but possibly it will get even worse.

Really sad that such a promising series can go so badly downhill and just stop making any sense or being gooda t all!

This is the story of a group of friends in college preparatory classes for their last 2 years of mandatory schooling and their good and bad and love and hate, and all the partying in between. We have Tony Stonem (Nicholas Hoult, the boy from About a Boy who has sure sprouted) who is tall and handsome and quite manipulative of all of his friends. His girlfriend is Michelle Richardson (April Pearson) who he calls Nips and always disparages, though she is a sweet girl who loves him. Tony’s best friend is Sid Jenkins (Mike Bailey) who not only is not good in school, but looks down on himself and still a virgin, especially because he is in love with Michelle, and everyone knows it. They try and hook Sid up with the crazy Cassie Ainsworth (Hannie Murray) who is often put away because of an eating disorder. Then we have the party animal Chris Miles (Joe Dempsie) who will take any drug at any time, and is hiding from the death of his brother at a young age. Chris pursues and eventually gets the groups psychology teacher Angie (Siwan Morris). The Muslim of the group is Anwar Kharral (Dev Patel) who follows his religion in some ways, but still does drugs, and is always trying to have sex. His best friend is the openly gay Maxxie Oliver (Mitch Hewer) who wants to not do construction like his dad, and instead wants to be a dancer. Finally we have Jal Fazer (Larissa Wilson) a talented clarinet player whose dad is in music, and whose mother left for reasons unknown.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Cassie, Michelle, Tony, Sketch (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), Anwar, Sid, Chris, Jal and Maxxie

Through the show we see Cassie falling for Sid, but he is oblivious because of his love for Michelle, and this eventually causes her to attempt suicide and be sent away.

And we see Tony and Michelle finally have a falling out when on a trip to Russia she catches him blowing Maxxie, another of manipulative acts, where he only thinks of himself. And this after Tony keeps ending up with a posh upper-class girl from a girl school across campus. This girl is Abigail Stock (Georgina Moffat). Tony had also tried to push Michelle and Sid together, but came back as a hero. He is always manipulating those closest to him.

Michelle ends up going out with a guy named Josh Stock (Ben Lloyd Hughes) who is Abigail’s crazy brother (and their mother runs the institution that Cassie keeps getting sent to), but Tony sabotages it by stealing Josh’s phone and sending Michelle a text from it with naked photos of Josh’s sister Abigail.

Anwar sees some of Maxxie’s drawings of them, and then a drawing that seems to be his own cock, and he tells Maxxie that his religion is against homosexuality, and they have a falling out.

Tony’s younger sister Effie (Kaya Scodelario) the supercool girl goes out partying and gets arrested. Tony goes to get her out, but she is already released, and he spends the night trying to find her. He gets weird texts too, and ends up enlisting Sid, who hasn’t been talking to him. Sid and Tony end up fighting, and Sid takes off and goes and sees Cassie, and they talk.

Tony finds Effie at a party with Josh, where they have heavily drugged her, and Josh wants to force him to have sex with her to save her, but after he begs he lets him leave with Effie. Effie recovers, though their parents blame Tony.

Chris’s mom ends up skipping out on him. He thinks she is leaving for a weekend and spends all the money on a big party, which lasts for days and the house gets trashed. Angie helps him get campus housing. He ends up in an ongoing relationship with Angie, though it is screwed up when her old fiancee returns.

Michelle’s problems with are compounded by her mom and her serial marriages. First is a young gold digger, and later a rich guy with a daughter that Michelle instantly takes a dislike too.

The first season ends with Anwar’s birthday party. Maxxie wants to go, but won’t until Anwar tells his dad that Maxxie is gay, which Anway won’t do, though when the dad finally learns he is OK with it.

Tony finally realizes how wrong he is and calls Michelle to say he is sorry and that he loves her, but is hit by a bus and lays bleeding in the street with Effie holding him, crying (the first time she has shown any empotion at all).

The episode ends with Sid singing Wild World by Cat Stevens to camera with the other characters singing as well as he goes to find Cassie who is set to leave the next day for Scotland with her family. (and luckily this is on the soundtrack, such a great moment)

The next Season opens about Tony’s impairment after the bus accident. He looks OK, but his brain doesn’t work so well, and he can’t even write, and he doesn’t remember most things. And he is pissed at Sid for not coming around, though Sid was there the whole time at his bed when he was unconscious.

Sid is having a long distance relationship with Cassie, but he sees her taking her braw off in front of a guy on the computer (which she doesn’t know is on) and breaks up with her.

Maxxie starts getting stalked by a girl named Lucy but called Sketch (Aimee-Ffion Edwards). She ends up poisoning Michelle so she can get in the play and kiss Maxxie, but he is not interested at all. So she starts dating Anwar and slowly making him dress and look more and more like Maxxie.

Chris is screwing up in school, and makes a deal with Jal, and the two end starting to date, but she ends up pregnant, but does not want to tell him.

Sid’s father after being left by his wife, ends up dyeing, leaving Sid alone and depressed.

The group goes on a disastrous camping trip for Michelle’s birthday and Sid and Michelle end up hooking up, and when they return, Cassie is waiting in Sid’s room and catches them. Michelle and Sid keep seeing each other, and Cassie goes a bit crazy, staying with Chris and selling drugs, and having sex with strangers, including women.

Tony ends up going to a university open day, where he goes nuts, and has sex with a tattooed woman, and does drugs, and ends up awakening his old memories and personality, and he realizes he loves Michelle and has to get her back. He confronts Sid and Michelle who are having sex in a bathroom, and tells them this is wrong. They end up breaking up, and Michelle is still mad at him and Sid won’t walk to him.

Effie is sent to a private school, where she is befriended by the strange Pandora Moon (Lisa Backwell) and instead of doing her art assignment works to get Tony and Michelle and Sid and Cassie back together, and she manages it with Sid and Cassie, though gets kicked out of school for not doing her assignment.

It turns out that Chris has the same problem as his brother and almost dies, but recovers, and then dies and is found by Cassie who runs away to New York. Sending Sid an unsigned postcard.

Jal ends up getting an abortion. ANd then Chris’s dad tells Sid they are not invited to the funeral. Tony gets Sid to help in stealing the corpse so they can have their own funeral, but Michelle makes them return him, and they have their own funeral watching the real funeral where none of Chris’s friends are.

They get their A levels results, finding that Tony and Michelle will be going to different schools far apart. Sid did not apply to school. Anwar failed so he can’t go to school like he planned, but is invited to London with Maxxie and his new boyfriend.

Tony gives Sid a ticket to New York to find Cassie. And we see Sid searching New York for her. She works at a cafe, and met a guy, who left to go find his ex, and allowed her to stay in his place. Sid walks by where she works, but we do not see if they see each other.

The show ends with Effie in Tony’s bed, as she will be the lead in Series 3.

••••

An enjoyable intense teenage soap opera, with a lot of realism. I like the characters and the style of the show, and the stories do seem realistic at least for a certain crowd. Really a great show, and I have started watching season 3, which I like, but not as well since the cast isn’t quite as lovable, or at least they do not have someone as likable as Sid.

Kim Daniels (Olivia Hallinan) is a 15 year old girl whose parents have just moved to a small resort town on the coast of England. Kim is an in the closet lesbian who is in love with her lascivious best friend Maria “Sugar” Sweet (Lenora Crichlow). Sugar loves men, and always is stringing along one boyfriend or another, and driving Kim absolutely crazy. Kim’s parents are having issues too. Stella (Sara Stewart) is not too happy, and has an affair with the handiman, while Nathan (Richard Lumsden) doesn’t even notice. And their son Matt (Kurtis O’Brien) is the strangest of the bunch, killing his animals, going goth, dressing as a girl and sleeping in a coffin. Kim has a good life, but is completely sexually frustrated, and would do anything to be with Sugar.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….

Kim even plans on drugging Sugar, but ends up drugging her brother instead.

Nathan and Stella end up separating.

And eventually Kim and Sugar end up running away to London, where they have sex for the first time. This doesn’t last long, and they are busted for stealing Stella’s money and a car, and Sugar is locked up for a year. Kim is the only one who visits her.

Kim meanwhile meets a local lesbian who owns a sex toy shop named Saint (Sarah-Jane Potts) and they start dating.

Of course this is rocky, Saint is friends with her ex-boyfriend, and then Kim kisses another girl, and Saint leaves. This leads to Kim overdosing, and thinking that Sugar saved her, when it was in fact Saint.

Then Sugar’s mom runs away and Sugar must move in with Kim, which causes even more troubles.

Eventually Kim and Saint work things out, and Kim agrees to move in with Saint, and they have just moved in together when after Sugar’s new apartment burnt down, she must move in with the lesbian couple.

••••

A really fun show with crazy and enjoyable characters. Olvia Hallinan is perfect as Kim, and Lenora Crichlow is perfect as the bundle of energy, Sugar. She is amazing, and is the highlight of BEING HUMAN currently on the BBC.

The Doctor (Patrick Troughton) along with his companions Jamie [James Robert McCrimmon (Frazer Hines)] and Victoria [Waterfield (Victoria Waterfield)] arrive and start running around a beach when there is an assassination attempt on the Doctor. They are rescued via helicopter by Astrid Ferrier (Mary Peach) who takes them to their boss Giles Kent (Bill Kerr). Giles is against a man named Salamander who is a physical double of the Doctor. Salamander rules the United Zones Organization which controls the Earth. Salamander used technology to use the sun to increase crop production and has been ruthless in his use of power, killing off anyone who gets in his way. Kent used to be a deputy leader in North Africa and Europe, but when he crossed Salamander he was destroyed. Kent convinces the Doctor to impersonate Salamander to get information so they can try and take down this evil man.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The Doctor and Salamander

Just then Giles house is raided by Security Chief Donald Bruce (Colin Douglas), but the Doctor’s imitation is sound, and Kent leaves.

The Doctor doesn’t know if Salamander is really a villain, but Jamie and Victoria join Astrid to infiltrate Salamander’s retinue in Central Europe, while Kent and the Doctor head to the Kanowa research station to see what they can find out.

Salamander warns that a dormant volcano in Hungary is about to explode. Alexander Denes (George Pravda) who is an ally of Kent, doesn’t believe Salamander.

Jamie manages to join Salamanders personal staff after foiling a fake assassination attempt, while Victoria becomes a cooks’s assistant.

Salamander turns Denes deputy Fedorin (David Nettheim) against Denes with blackmail. The volcano errupts and Denes is put in a bad position for not listening to Salamander and is removed from office. Fedorin is sent to kill him, but when he doesn’t he is killed.

Donald Bruce meanwhile is very suspicious of the goings on, and tries to find out what really happened with Jamie, and later ask Salamander about his relationship with Jamie since he saw him earlier with him./

Jamie and Victoria meet Salamander’s food taster Fariah (Carmen Munroe) and they manage to try to help Denes escape, but he is shot and killed. Jamie and Victoria are taken as prisoners to Kanowa, but Fariah gives files to Kent that show the blackmail Salamander is doing, but in a raid she is killed.

Salamander realizes something is wrong. He dons a radiation suit and enters a secret lift which takes him to an underground bunker. Inside are scientists who believe the whole world is destroyed and Salamander is venturing out at the risk of his own life to get them supplies. They are the ones that are creating the natural disasters that Salamander is using to consolidate his power. One man Colin (Adam Verney) decides to return with Salamander to the surface, though no one who has done it has ever returned.

The Doctor is found by Bruce, but they convince him that the Leader is evil. They head to the research center to get more evidence, and if there is none they will all be arrested, though Kent and Astrid manage to escape.

The scientists underground unpack their food and one finds a newspaper showing that life is fine on the surface. He confronts Salamander, and Salamander agrees to take him and not Collin to the surface.

Benik (Milton Johns) interrogates Jamie and Victoria until Bruce and the Doctor arrive and send him away. The Doctor finds out about the excessive food supplies going there, and he heads into the record rooms. Giles Kent arrives and has a key to the secret room.

Astrid finds Swann who had been hit by Salamander and is close to death, but tells her of the scientists underground before he dies. She goes into the bunker and explains what is going on. Colin believes her, and along with his girlfriend Mary (Margaret Hickey) go to the surface. In the records room they find the Doctor and Kent, and it is found that Kent is the one who sent them all below to begin with. The Doctor had realized that Kent just wanted to take over. Kent manages to flee into the cave.

Bruce has taken over the Research Center and arrested Benik while the Doctor heads into the tunnels.

Salamander has found Kent and killed him as he set to blow up the caves. Astrid meanwhile works on getting the scientists out of the shelter.

The Doctor arrives on the beach with the Tardis, and Jamie and Victoria are waiting for him. The Doctor tells Jamie to pilot the Tardis, and Jamie is suspicious, and it does turn out to be Salamander, as the Doctor arrives. Salamander activates the dematerialization with the Tardis doors open and he is blown into the Vortex as the others hold on for dear life…

•••

Very fun, very fun indeed, just too bad it can’t be watched in full, though the CD is enjoyable enough.

A research center in Fetch Borough England is being run by the eccentric millionaire scientist Dr. Fendelman (Denis Lill) along with technical Thea Ransome (Wanda Ventham) and paleontologists Adam Colby (Edward Arthur) and his colleague Maximiliam Steal (Scott Fredericks). They are studying a strange crystal skull that was buried under a volcano 12 million years ago, or 8 million years older than man. Fendelmen activates a scanner on the skull, which causes many strange things. First the skull starts to glow. Then a man hiking though the nearby woods freezes and is taken by some force. And finally Thea seems to be taken over by some power in the skull. The Tardis feels the effects as well, being tossed around by a hole in time made by the scanner, so he and Leela decide to investigate. Leela is quite ferral here, almost killing the man they run into, but he does lead them to the Fetch Priory where the scientists are ensconced. Colby finds the corpse of the hiker, which has been completely drained of life, and wants to call the police, but is overruled by Fendelman, who also calls in his own security, led by David Mitchell (Derek Martin) making the scientists his prisoners. Stael does a post mortem on the corpse, and finds a strange mark on the back of the neck, and that the body is decomposing rapidly, and Fendelman has him hide it. Thea once again activates the skull, and seems to merge with it. The Doctor is almost attacked by the same creature that got the hiker, but manages to get away, and it attacks the Prior killing Mitchell, and it only stops when Colby shuts down the scanner.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Colby and Thea find the rapidly decomposing body of Mitchell in the kitchen. Thea changes again, and the Doctor arrives to take charge and find out what is going on. The Doctor sees images of Fendahleen transposed on her, and it worries him greatly, as the Fendahl were a threat to the Timelords! The Doctor tells Colby that the creatures could kill all life on Earth. Fendelman and STael arrive and they lock up the Doctor, while they dispose of the second corpse.

Fendelman tells Colby that he surmises that the skull is not human, and not from Earth, and that it has a pentagream in it’s structure, and that he and Stael are doing secret experiments on it.

Leela meanwhile has overpowered Ted Moss (Edward Evans) in a local cottage, who had tried to shoot at her. Jack Tyler (Geoff Hinsliff) arrives and kicks Moss out of his grandmother’s house, and they wait for Martha (Daphne Heard) to return, but she seems shell shocked, and Leela heads to find the Doctor to get him to help.

Thea once again goes to set off the scanner, but she is knocked out by Stael.

The Doctor has escaped and finds the skull, which sends pain through his body when he touches it, and luckily Leela arrives and pries him off, saving him. The Doctor realizes the skull is feeding on death, and growing stronger. They return to the cottage and he manages to awaken Martha. He explains about the time fissure, which is probably what made Martha a bit psychic, and that is is being ripped open and could kill them all.

The Doctor and Leela return to the TARDIS and look up the records of when the Timelords destroyed the being known as the Fendahl, and put a time loop on it, so that it could never escape, but it obviously has.

Stael it turns out is the head of a local cult, and is taking over at the priory with the help of Ted Moss and other locals, and are to have a meeting in the basement of the priory. Stael has tied up Thea there in the center of a large pentagram, and Fendelman and Cloby are also tied up to watch Stael become a god. Fendelmen tries to tell Stael that he is being manipulated by the Fendal, which has manipulated him his whole life, but Stael kills him, and re-activates the time scanner, making Thea transform completely.

The Doctor and Leela go to the Priory with Martha and Jack, but they see a slug like Fendahleen (pretty cheap looking monsters) appears, and they only escape, because the Doctor manages to get them to believe they can use their legs again, and shooting it in it’s mouth with Rock Salt, and the sends the Martins to get all the salt they can get.

The Doctor has realized the Skull is remaking Thea into a new Fendahl.

In the basement Thea uses her power to change the cult members into Fendahleen, though the Doctor and Leela manage to help Colby to escape. Stael knows he will transform, so the Doctor gives him a gun to shoot himself, which means there are not enough Fendhaleen to allow the Fendhal to fully manifest itself.

The Doctor turns off the scanner, and gets Leela Colby, Jack and Martha, and they all fight the Fendalheen with Rock salt. The Doctor explains to them that the Fendhal can absorb any energy, and the timelords saw this and destroyed the fifth planet hoping to destroy it, but it’s skull managed to get to Earth, and it has had some power over man every since, with these people being genetically predestined to do what they did, especially Fendelman, the man of the Fendahl.

The Doctor realizes he must explode the scanner, destroying the whole base, and the Fendahleen. Colby sets the scanner to explode, while the Doctor and Leela go into the basement and steal the skull, putting it in a lead lined box, and mange to escape, and return to the Tardis as the Priory explodes.

The Doctor and Leela eject the skull into a supernova, so it is destroyed for good.

••••

Silly, and not too impressive overall.

The Doctor (the great Tom Baker) is on his way to Gallifrey after being summoned, and leaving Sarah Jane Smith behind. On the why he has a vision of the future, a vision of the President of the Timelords (Llewellyn Rees) being murdered, and he knows he must do all he can to stop it. As soon as the Doctor’s TARDIS arrives on Gallifrey it is pegged as an old illegal TARDIS type 40 which should be out of service, so soldiers, led by Commander Hildred (Derek Seaton) are sent to arrest it’s pilot. The Doctor realizes something is wrong, and hides. The Castellan Spandrell (George Pravda) is informed of the events. The Doctor runs for a service elevator, and is confronted by a guard, but a cloaked figure kills the guard, and is off before the Doctor can do anything. He realizes he has been set up, but he has to try and save the President. The Doctor sends the lift on it’s way, but sneaks off another way, so that Hildred will search the wrong building. We see the cloaked figure, who is the Master (Peter Pratt) who is watching, and of course has set up the Doctor.

REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS…

(Love Tom dressed as a Timelord, and damn if the Master does not look Nasty as all hell!)

The Doctor is back in his TARDIS, and watches a news broadcast being read by his old classmate Runcible (Hugh Walters) which tells that the President is set to retire, and it is thought that Chancellor Goth (Bernard Horsfall who also appeared as a Time Lord in the final Patrick Troughton Adventure THE WAR GAMES which I have not seen yet, but was the first appearance of Gallifrey) will replace him.

The TARDIS is transmatted into a museum, letting the doctor escape and steal someones Timelord robes, which allows him to sneak into the Panopticon.

The Master watches the events with glee, knowing the Doctor cannot escape.

The President meawhile mentions that everyone will be surprised by his choice of replacement.

The Doctor looks around, spying a camera above him, and he runs to it, finding a sniper rifle next to it. The Doctor sees something below, and grabs the gun and shoots, and the President drops dead, and we are left with one of the best, most manchurian candidate like endings of an episode. Did the doctor do it?

The assumed next President Chancellor Goth pushes for the Doctor to be executed before the next President is elected in 48 hours, his excuse being that it is customary for a new President to pardon political prisoners, and he doesn’t want the Presidents killer to be allowed to go free.

Borusa (Angus MacKay) the Doctor’s old professor is insistent that the Doctor get a fair trial according to the law, and has the Doctor brought forth. The Doctor invokes Article 17, his Timelord right to run for the office of President, which makes him a free man until he loses the election, and then he can be tried.

The Doctor is arrested, though he declares his innocence, and he is tortured, but the Castellan Spandrell starts to believe him, but needs proof, so he orders Co-Oridnator Engin (Erik Chitty) to assist him in the investigation.

The Doctor and Spandrell go to investigate. They check the rifle that the Doctor had, and see that in fact the sight is offset, so their is no way he could have shot the President, and it is no wonder that he missed the Assassin, when he tried to kill him. They realize the real assassin must have been caught by the camera that the Doctor was next to when he found the gun, and they go to it, and find that the the technician who was supposed to be running the camera is shrunken and stuffed into the camera, and the Doctor knows this is the work of the Master and his Tissue Compression Elminator. Runcible is supposed to take the film to be developed, but is killed by a spear.

The Gallifrey computers though have no record of the Master, though the Doctor knows he was there, and must have tampered with them. The Doctor realizes that the Timelord master computer, which houses the brains and intellect of departed Time Lords, called The Matrix must be being used by the Master, and it must have sent the Doctor his premonition. He decides he must go into the Matrix himself to try and find out who is behind it all, though if he dies inside his body outside will die as well.

The Doctor enters the world of the Matrix, where he is attacked in different surreal events. A hungry crocodile tries to eat him, a Samurai knocks him from a cliff and knocks him out, and when he awakens a Doctor is trying to stab him with a huge needle. The Doctor then finds himself in a World War 1 battle, and then stuck with his leg in a train track switch. He sees an insane clown under ice, and gets strafed by a biplane. The Doctor survives when he realizes that this is an all illusion, and he must deny it’s existence, but the creator tells him there is no escape, and his wounds (including a gun shot wound to the leg) return.

The Doctor sees his assassin, a man dressed as a big game hunter with a rifle, though masked, who poisons the water supply. The Doctor steals his grenade and twine to use as a weapon, which the hunter trips, and wounds himself.

The Master sends a guard to kill the Doctor’s real form, but he is stopped by Spandrell.

The Doctor finds the pool of water he so desperately needs, but it is poisoned, and must find other water, then creates a blowgun poisoned with the remains of the Assassin’s poison, and he manages to shoot the assassin in the leg, though shooting the Doctor in his arm. The Assassin then manages to use his antidote to cure himself.

The Doctor finally sees who the Assassin is, and it is Chancellor Goth! Goth goes to shoot the Doctor while in a swamp, but lights the marsh gas, burning himself, but he drops in the water, putting it out, and attacks the Doctor, gaining the upper hand, and at the episode end, seemingly in the process of drowning the Doctor!!!

The Doctor though manages to break free, and hit Goth over the head, defeating him. The Master then tries to trap the Doctor within the Matrix and overload his brain. Engin manages to free the Doctor, but Goth is not so lucky, and is killed.

The master injects himself with a needle, and when they find him he is dead, and Goth is dying. He reveals that he found the dying master in his 12th and last regeneration on the planet Tersurrus, and he helped him and brought him back to Gallirrey in order to get power, because he knew the President was not going to name him as President, but he knew he would win in an election.

Spandrell informs the Doctor’s old teacher Borusa, who orders a cover story to maintain confidence in the government, glossing over the Doctor’s involvement, and getting him to quickly leave Gallifrey.

The Doctor asks the Presidential trappings of office, and he is told of the Sash and Key of Rassilon, and they listen to an old recording of how Rassilon found something called the Eye of Harmony, and the doctor realizes that the trappings are not at all ceremonial, and are in fact what the master was after!

A guard finds the needle the master used, and the Doctor realizes it is a neural inhibitor, so the Master is still alive!

The Doctor, Engin and Spandrell rush to the morgue, and find the Master is awake, and has murdered Hildred. With Hildred’s gun, the Master manages to steal the Sash of Rassilon, and locks the 3 into the morgue.

The Doctor explains what he has realized. The Eye is a black hole, and is the power that allows Gallifrey to run, and gives it’s people the power to be able to travel through time. The Sash and the Key are what control the eye, and with it the Master should be able to break his cycle of regenerations, which will also destroy Gallifrey, and a good portion of surrounding space as well.

The Master enters the Panopticon, and goes to the Eye of Harmony in a large crystal obelisk. He unhooks it’s power cables which power the planet, so he can harness the energy himself.

The Doctor manages to get into the Panopticon via service shafts from the morgue. He fights the master as the whole planet begins to shake, and the floor cracks. The master ends up stumbling into the chasm, as the Doctor reconnects the Eye, stabilizing the planet and saving it.

The Doctor is given back his TARDIS, on the condition that he leave, but he warns Borusa, Spandrell and Egin that the Master may not be dead, as he got some of the energy from the eye before he fell.

As the Doctor’s TARDIS dematerializes, Spandrell and Egin see the Master sneak into his own nearby TARDIS and also dematerialize, realizing the 2 enemies will meet again soon.

•••••

This was made to satisfy Baker’s craving to do a Season without a companion, and with the quality and intensity of the story I wish the BBC had been willing to do more, because this is one of my favorite episodes. Great writing, directing, amazing action, a dark story, and it really makes the timelords much more like petty humans. This is one of my favorite stories of Doctor Who!

The film stars with the most epic version of the Doctor Who theme yet, and we learn that the Doctor’s most notorious nemesis The Master has been exterminated on Skaro (homeworld of the Daleks) for his crimes (Huh? Why would the Dalek’s do something for the Timelords their mortal enemies?!?!??!) and the current Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) was sent to pick up the remains and return with them to the homeworld of the Timelords, Gallifrey, but the remains escape, and cause the TARDIS to make an emergency landing on Earth in the 21st Century, San Franscisco’s Chinatown to be exact. There a Chinese boy named Chang Lee (Yee Jee Tso) is being chased by a Triad, and the Doctor is shot as he exits the TARDIS, with Lee safe behind it the materialized time machine. Lee takes the Doctor to the hospital, where he is quickly brought into surgery. They find the Doctor has 2 hearts, and call in surgeon Dr. Grace Halloway (Daphne Ashbrook). She thinks the x-ray is a double exposure and starts surgery. She inserts a cardiac probe, and the Doctor awakens, and tries to stop her, and tells her he needs a beryllium atomic clock (to fix his TARDIS) then passes out again, and dies of cardiac arrest (and the drugs she gave him supposedly slow the regeneration process, so it does not happen immediately, and also cause the 8th Doctor to have some memory loss, and possibly be half human, which seems completely ridiculous, but so is most of this story). So he is placed in the morgue. Lee quickly sneaks out with the Doctor’s possessions including the TARDIS key. The remains of the master take over the Ambulance driver, Bruce (Eric Roberts) possessing him. He kills his wife, and heads out to find the Doctor’s body, which he wants to use as his own, as he out of regenerations (having passed his 13th incarnation). That night in the morgue, the Doctor regenerates (into Paul McGann), taking a Wyatt Earp costume from someone’s locker for a New Years eve party, and heads out to find Grace, and convince her he is the same man as the one she operated on, to get her help, as his memory is foggy.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...

Lee goes to the TARDIS, and enters with the key he has stolen, finding inside the Master (Eric Roberts). He convinces Lee that in fact is the Doctor who is evil, and he has stolen his body, and he needs Lee’s help to get it back (when in fact the Master needs the Doctor’s body to keep on living and be able to regenerate).

He takes Lee to the heart of the TARDIS, the Cloister room, and gets his help to open it’s heart, the Eye Of Harmony using his human retinal pattern (Which Bruce’s body would have too, but I am assuming can’t because his eyes have turned yellow, which is stupid, but most of this is).

The Doctor is with Grace, and realizes that the Eye has opened, remembering who he is, as it opens, and closing his eyes, so the Master cannot see though his eye’s using the eye. He realizes he and Grace must shut the Eye before Midnight or the entire planet will be destroyed, and to do so he needs an atomic clock.

Grace does not believe the Doctor and returns to her home, but the Doctor follows and shows that reality is changing by walking though one of her windows without breaking it. Grace still takes some convincing, and she calls an ambulance for what she thinks is a crazy guy, but the two go in it, and end up heading to a science institute where she is on the board, and they are about to start a new atomic clock.

Lee and the Master hear the call for an ambulance, and head in Bruce’s ambulance and go after them.

The Doctor and Grace manage to get the necessary components of the atomic clock, though Grace gets hit with some of the Master’s green bile on her wrist. They steal a motorcycle and go on a chase to the TARDIS. The Doctor manages to install the chip into the TARDIS controls, but realizes the Eye has been open for too long, and that he must revert time to stop the Earth from being destroyed, but before he can finish, the Master takes over Grace using the bile, and captures the Doctor.

The Doctor is chained up next to the Eye, and the Master gets Grace to activate the eye so he can begin to transfer into the Doctor’s body. The Doctor tries to get Lee to awaken from the spell he is under by the Master, but he can’t, but Lee refuses to re-open the eye, and the Master kills him, and gets Grace to do it (though this frees her from his will). Grace goes to activate the TARID, but the Master kills her, though this lets the Doctor get free, and throw the master into the Eye, seemingly killing him, and the activated TARDIS rewinds time, bringing Grace and Lee back to life, and saving the Earth.

Lee gives the Doctor back his possessions and leaves, and he offers Grace (who he has kissed) to come with him, but she refuses, and he sets out on his previous course back to Galiffrey.

••••

Wow, so damn lame. A bad story, and such bad acting all the way around. I mean the Master has been over the top before, but it is just ridiculous here. And too bad because as I said McGann could have been good. I actually want to hear some of his audio adventures with Big Finish now, which are in their 3rd season, but I am glad this did not continue in this form, because it was absolutely awful. It is really too bad this is cannon, it is that bad!

Earth of the future at Brittanicus Base they are trying to slow the progress of glaciers that are rolling over Britain. Leader Clent (Peter Barkworth) says they will be able to stop the ice age, but the others including technician Jan Garrett (Wendy Gifford) know they are close to being forced to leave and losing Britain to the new Ice Age. Clent is pissed at a maverick scientist named Penley (Peter Sallis) who left the team. The remaining scientist Arden (George Waring) is searching for archeological finds in the glaciers and he finds an armored warrior in a block of ice. Arden doesn’t listen to Clent’s appeals to come back and help with the ioniser and instead works on digging out the man from the ice. They are watched by Penley and Storr (Angus Lennie) who have given up on Technology. When their is an avalanche, Storr has his arm badly broken.

The Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) arrive in the TARDIS outside the base, and the Doctor offers to help Clent with the Ioniser. The Doctor manages to stabilize the Ioniser, realizing the Ice Age is caused by a drop in CO2 levels after all the plant life has died.

Arden and Walters (Malcolm Taylor) arrive with the frozen man, and he realizes it is n Ice Warrior from Mars entombed since the last Ice Age. An emergency meeting is called, and no one notices that the ice on the Warrior has started to melt.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The creature awakens, knocking out Jamie and taking Victoria hostage.

The Doctor realizes that their could be an Ice Warrior ship under the glacier with atomic power which the Ioniser could explode the engine and destroy the base and cause the Ice Age. Jamie arrives and tells them what has happened.

Victoria learns the Ice Warrior is named Varga (Bernard Bresslaw), and he insists she helps him find his crew, where they will decide to either return to Mars or conquer the Earth.

Penley heads to the base to steal medical supplies, but sees Victoria and Varga and follows them. Varga knocks out Clent, and Penley tries to revive him, and is found by the Doctor. Penley leaves without helping on the Ioniser.

Varga finds four more Ice Warriors and starts to revive them. Zondal his lietenant (Roger Zones) sets up defenses while the others dig out their spaceship.

Penley returns to Storr with the medicine, but finds Miss Garrett who implores him to return and help them. He refuses and she pulls a gun, but Storr grabs it, and she is sent back to check on the Omega Factor. The Doctor checks the new data and finds that the Ioniser can be made more effective.

Jame and Arden go and find the Ice Warriors and tell the base, but are gunned down by Ice Warriors. Penley finds them, and Jamie is still alive and he takes him to his home. Storr goes to talk to the Ice Warriors himself.

Victoria contacts the base and tells them of the danger of the ice warriors, but Zondal aims the ships weapons at her, but is stopped by Varga, learning of the base’s concern for their engine, and uses it against them. Victoria is taken again as bate.

The Doctor goes to get her with some ammonium sulfate which will be noxious to the Ice Warriors. Victoria flees into the ice caves and is chased by an Ice warrior who is crushed under an avalanche, and she is still head by his dead claw.

Storr is killed, but Victoria is allowed to live.

Penley brings the Doctor to Jamie and he finds that Jamie’s paralysis is only temporary and so he heads to the Martian spaceship. The Doctor leaves his communicator on so that Clent can hear and talks to the Ice Warriors, and is allowed into the ship, but locked in the airlock and almost killed, but Varga releases him when he believes his motives and give VIctoria to him.

Varga believes the Ionizer is a weapon, and the Doctor lets Clent know that in an emergency he must use it to destroy the Martian ship. Varga takes the communicator and locks up the Doctor, but he sees an Ion Propulsion system.

Varga decides to destroy the base with his sonic cannon.

Penley returns to the base with Jamie and with Clent they decide to use the Ioniser, as the Doctor’s new formula has been working in other bases.

Zondal is working on the Sonic Cannon when the doctor uses the ammonium sulfate on him and he collapses, but activates the cannon as he falls.

The blast causes only minor damage, but Varga threatens Clent that he will fire again, and Clent suggests a meeting, and Varga heads for the Ioniser room. A technician shoots at the Warriors, and Varga takes the fuel from the ionizer for his ship, which starts the glaciers moving again. Penley though turns the heat up in the base, which the Ice Warriors can’t take.

The Doctor set the Sonic Cannon to only hurt Ice Warriors, and forces the Warriors to leave the base.

The Doctor returns to the base and works with Penley to recalibrate the Ioniser and to fire it at the ship. The computer things it will explode, but they get CLent to ignore it, and activate it, destroying the martial ship and stopping the glacier.

The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria take off in the TARDIS leaving as plants start to pop through the melting snow.

•••

Another enjoyable Troughton adventure. Really such a seminal doctor, it really sucks that so many of his episodes are missing!

Professor Travers (Jack Watling) in Tibet is awoken from his sleep, and sees a huge Yeti over the body of his friend an destroys his gun. Travers runs. The TARDIS arrives. The Doctor (Patrick Troughton) is overjoyed where they are and he begins to search for something that will get them quite a welcome when they go to the Detsen Monastery and gives it to them, this is the Ghanta a relic from the temple he got at 300 years ago.

The Doctor goes to investigate in a fur cloak, leaving Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Deborah Watling (Victoria Waterfield) find the Ghanta and Jamie also finds a sword, which he decides to keep. The Doctor heads to the monastery on his to his own and finds Traver’s camp and the dead body and he takes the crushed gun and backpack.

Victoria gets bored and she and Jamie go out and decide to look on their own, and they find huge animal prints, which they follow.

The Doctor gets to the monastery, but finds his way barred by armed monks. Travers blames the Doctor for killing his friend, and the monks listen to him and lock up the Doctor, especially the head of the warrior monks Khrisong (Norman Jones).

Jamie and Victoria enter a cave and get trapped by a huge creature behind a boulder.

The Doctor looks out the window, but as Travers tells him it is a 100 foot drop and accuses the Doctor of being a journalist who is trying to sabotage him and his work about the Yeti. The Doctor knows the Yeti are in fact timid, so they can’t be attacking, and neither could he.

The monks are talking about the fate of the Doctor who they believe to be a murderer, and Khrisong believes Travers that the Doctor is a murderer even if the other monks don’t quite believe. And the fact that the Yeti are attacking make it worse, so he has the Doctor tied to the front gate of the keep.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Jamie and Victoria find a strange glowing sphere in the cave, and they take it and manage to get out the cave.

The novice takes the Ghanta to the Abbot Songsten (Charles Morgan) who is talking to the master Padmasambhava (Wolfe Morris) who knows the Doctor from his last visit. He knows the doctor may make trouble for their plan.

Jamie and Victoria run into Travers outside of the temple, and convince him that the Doctor is not a threat to him. They go to the monastery, and see the Doctor being released on the abbots orders.

Shortly therafter the Yeti attack and one is overpowered and immobilized and the Doctor has it brought it and realizes it is a robot, with a cavity in it for a spherical unit. The sphere brought back by Jamie comes to life and starts rolling around toward the immobilized Yeti.

Padmasambhava is controlling the Yeti with a strange chess like map.

The Doctor has the monks search for the missing sphere. Khrisong sees the Yeti outside retrieve a sphere, and he begins to trust the Doctor. The Doctor with Jamie head back to the TARDIS to get some equipment to track the missing sphere.

The Sphere gets into the dormant Yeti and re-activates it, and it goes after Victoria. It battles Monks, killing many, and Thonmi (David Spenser) allows it out of the temple. Victoria and Thonmi are locked up for reviving the Yeti.

The Yeti heads to the cave in the mountain with it’s sphere, but is followed by Travers. Abbot SOngsten arrives with Yeti and a glowing pyramid of spheres which he leaves in the cave. Travers sneaks in and finds the pyramid glowing and a strange cobweb substance.

He flees and follows Songsten.

Songsten reports to Padmasambhava who talks about the Great Intelligence taking form. He orders the Monks out of the monastery, which Khrisong does not like at all.

The TARDIS is guarded by a Yeti, but it isn’t functioning, so they take out it’s control sphere. The Sphere comes back to life, and tries to get in the Yeti, but Jamie blocks it with a large rock. They run to the monastery, but are chased by the Yeti, and must give up the sphere to escape.

The Doctor and Khrisong ally to try and keep the Monks at the monastery, but Songsten opens the gates to let the Yeti in.

Victoria meanwhile has escaped, and gotten into the chamber of Padmasambhava, where she realizes he is controlling the Yeti.

The Yeti kill another Monk, and Khrisong agrees the Monks must leave. Victoria is put in a trance and sent out to get the monks to leave and not blame the strangers.

The Doctor is disturbed that Padmasambhava is still alive after 300 years and he goes to confront his friend. Padmasambhava explains that the Great Intelligence is using his body for experiements. The old man dies, but is re-animated by the Great Intelligence.

The Doctor meanwhile has gone to help Victoria and has awakened her. He learns from Travers about the cave and the pyramid.

Soogsten obeys the intelligence and kills Khrisong, but the Doctor and his friends overpower Songsten and tie him up. The Monks flee while the Doctor with Jamie, Victoria and Thonmi go to confront the Great Intelligence. First they start destroying the equipment that controls the Yeti, and when they destroy it all the robots go dormant, and when they destroy the pyramid, the Intelligence is sent away, and Padmasambhava is let free, and dies for good in the Doctor’s arms.

They leave the temple and Travers spies a Yeti and runs off, and the Doctor and his companions leave.

•••

Fun, and better to not see white people playing tibetan monks! Ha!

An archeological expedition on the planet Telos finds a hidden entrance into a mountain. The TARDIS lands nearby and the Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) join them. The leader of the expedition Professor Parry (Aubrey Richards) are here to find the remains of the Cybermen who died out centuries before on best of Kaftan (Shirley Cooklin). Kaftan is accompanied by his servant Toberman (Roy Stewart) and Eric Kleig (George Pastell). They enter the chamber, finding a control panel and a large sealed door. The Doctor finds some hidden passageways, but does not manage to open the door, while Toberman sneaks off. Victoria along with Kaftan and Parry find a room with a huge sarcophagus, which Victoria climbs into. Meanwhile the Doctor and Klieg argue about not turning on the controls, but the Doctor gives Klieg the hint he needs to activate the machines, which restores power and locks Victoria in the sarcophagus.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The Doctor manages to free Victoria, while Jamie and Peter Haydon (Bernard Holley) end up releasing a cyberman and Haydon is killed. The Cyberman turns out to be a shell, and the weapon was from a the room which is a testing range and by playing with the controls they activated it and killed Haydon.

Captain Hopper (George Roubicek) returns from the ship informing them that it has been sabotaged and needs to be repaired before they can leave.

They manage to open the hatch to the tomb and the enter leaving Kaftan and Victoria outside. Inside is a huge room with a honeycomb of Cybermen frozen in them.

Kaftan drugs Victoria and closes the hatch sealing everyone inside. Kleig activates some controls and starts the cybermen being thawed, killing Viner (Cyril Shaps) who tries to stop him. He and Kaftan are from the Brotherhood of the Logicians who want to revive the Cybermen to ally themselves with them.

Kaftan is knocked out by a cybermat (a small rat sized Cyberman), but Victoria grabs his pistol and destroys the Cybermat, and goes searching for Hopper.

The Cyber Controller is released from his Cell and Klieg tries to take credit, and grabbed and declared to be theirs.

The Doctor realizes that this was all a trap to help intelligent beings to free them, and that those people would be converted and used to attack their own people, in this case Earth.

Hopper and Callum (Clive Merrison) open the hatch, and use smoke grenades to help the humans escape, except Toberman.

Kleig manages to take the gun from the wall, the cybergun to make the Cybermen work with him.Kleig and Katan call for the Cyber Controller who comes up with Toberman who has been partially cyberconverted. Luckily the Cybermen are low on power, and Kleig will help them repower if they help him conquer the Earth.

Toberman knocks Klieg out, and the Controller get the cybergun and kills Kaftan before returning to the tombs.

The Doctor manages to snap Toberman out of his cybercontrol, and he fights the Cybercontroller, knocking him into his control panels. The Doctor goes into the tombs with Toberman.

Klieg revives the Cybermen again, thinking that he can control them now that the Cybercontroller is out of the way, but they quickly kill him.

Toberman fights and kills a Cyberman while the Doctor and Jamie refreeze the other Cybermen in the cells. The Doctor rewires the control panels so they can never be used again, and electrifies the doors, but the Cybercontroller is still alive and grabs the doors and opens them, but he is stopped by Toberman who uses his bare hands to close the door, and he and the Controller are electrocuted and killed.

The ship is fixed, so the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria leave in the Tardis, but a lone cybermat goes towards Toberman’s Body.

•••

An absolute classic adventure of the 2nd Doctor. A classic villain and a great adventure.

The Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) in London’s Gatwick Airport watch as the TARDIS is loaded on a truck and driven off. They give chase and end up at the antique shop of Edward Waterfield (John Bailey) who sells victorian antiques that seem brand new. In a back room we see that Waterfield is being forced by the Daleks, who kill Kennedy (Griffith Davies) who stole the TARDIS for Waterfield. When the Doctor and Jamie go to investigate, they are knocked out, and dragged into a time machine, and wake up in 1866 in the manor of Theodore Maxtible (Marius Goring), Waterfield’s partner. They had been working on a time machine using mirrors and static electricity, when the Daleks arrived through the machine, and took over, taking Waterfield’s beautiful daughter Victoria (Deborah Watling) as a hostage, so that Waterfield would lure the Doctor here. Maxtible meanwhile seems to be going along with the Dalek’s for his own reasons. The Daleks threaten to destroy the TARDIS unless the Doctor will help them in their experiments to isolate the “Human Factor” that allows humans to constantly defeat the Daleks. They want to the Doctor to implant his Human Factor into 3 Daleks and create a new Dalek Super Race. They force the Doctor to put Jamie through a series of test in an effort to rescue Victoria.

REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS…

Jamie goes to rescue Victoria, running into the huge Kemel (Sonny Caldinez) who works for Maxtible, but ends up saving him, and Kemel ends up helping Jamie to rescue Victoria.

The Doctor meanwhile distills the human factor and implants it into 3 Daleks named Alpha, Beta and Omega, who are childlike, but mature quickly, but are very much Human Daleks and are even kind. The 3 are sent back to Skaro the Dalek’s home planet through the time machine.

Waterfield learns that Maxtible has betrayed them all to the Daleks for the secret of alchemical transmutation. Maxtible who has gone to Skaro, is tortured by the Daleks for not delivering the Doctor to them. The Doctor manages to get him, Jamie, Waterfeld and Victoria to Skaro through a short range time machine before the daleks destroy Maxtible’s house.

On Skaro they are brought before the Dalek Emperor, who has tricked the Doctor, because by isolating the Human Factor he has also isolated the Dalek Factor, so they can convert humans into mindless killing Daleks! And the Emperor wants the Doctor to do it with his TARDIS.

Maxtible is turned into a Dalek, and he converts the Doctor as well, but it is a trick, since the Doctor is not human at all. The Doctor looks for Alpha, Beta and Omega.

The Doctor suggests they send the the daleks through the arch to make sure they are all Dalek, but he has substituted the human factor, and made an army of Human Daleks to fight the Emperor.

Waterfield is killed saving the Doctor, and the Doctor promises to take care of Victoria.

The Emperor is exterminated by Human Daleks. The Doctor and his companions leave, while Maxtible runs back into the exploding Dalek city.

The Doctor tells Jamie that Victoria will be coming with them, and as the city burns, he declares the Dalek threat gone, and they leave in the Tardis.

••••

Quite fun and quite different. And the 3 hunan Daleks are so much fun. It is weird to see the Doctor so cold and calculating with Jamie though. Makes for an amazing series though.

The TARDIS lands right on the runway at Gatwick Airport in England, and the Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Ben Jackson (Michael Craze), Poly (Anneke Wills) and Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) all split up and run to avoid arrest, and the TARDIS is taken away by the authorities. Polly ends up the building of Chameleon tours, where she sees a man killed by Spencer (Victor Winding) with a futuristic gun. Spencer reports to his superior, Captain Blade (Donald Pickering) while Polly escapes, and finds the Doctor and Jamie. The trio come and find the body, but are seen by Blade. They go to warn the authorities, but Polly is taken by Blade. The Airport Commandant (Colin Gordon) does not want to believe the doctor, but goes with him and Jamie to Chamelon Tours, to see if there is any truth to the story, but the find no body, nor do they find Polly. After they leave, Spencer opens a crate and brings out a faceless humanoid creature, and the hospital nurse Pinto (Madalena Nicol) comes in with an unconscious air traffic control named Meadows (George Selway) and connects it to the creature, making the creature look like Meadows, and storing his body. The new Meadows returns to Air Traffic control. The Doctor and Jamie see Polly emerge from one of the planes, but the denies knowing them, and says she her name is Michelle and she is from Zurich.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Jamie goes and watches the Chamelon Tours kiosk, having followed Polly. There he meets Samantha Briggs (Pauline Collins) from Liverpool. She is looking for her missing brother who when on a Chameleon tour to Rome, but never arrives, even though he sent a postcard from there. With the Doctor the three find more postcards already signed by missing travelers. They also find a monitor looking at the hangar, and see Ben find the real Polly in suspended animation, and then see him frozen by Lade and Spencer. The Doctor rushes off to help.

Jamie and Samantha meet Detective Inspector Crossland (Bernard Kay) who is investigating the missing tourists from Chameleon tours, and realizes that Polly saw his partner getting murdered! The Doctor returns from the hanger having found the unconscious body of Meadows, so he knows he is a fake.

The Doctor and Crossland meet with the Commandant (Colin Gordon) and show him the freezer gun, and talk about the mass kidnappings.The Commandant gives the Doctor the run of the airport for 12 hours to find out more.

Crossland gets on the next Chameleon flight, but is taken by Captain Blade, and shows him that all the passengers on the flight have already disappeared.

Jamie and Samantha return to the Kiosk, and Jamie arranges to get on the next flight to Rome by taking Samantha’s ticket. Samantha meanwhile keeps investigating, and is grabbed by Spencer and taken to nurse Pinto (Madalena Nicol) for duplication.

Jamie takes off in the plane, with an RAF jet in pursuit, but Blade destroys it, and then takes the plane upward. All the passengers have disappeared, and Jamie sneaks off into a space station, finding the passengers have been miniaturized and hidden in drawers. Jamie is caught and locked up.

The Doctor has realized where the planes are going, and he confronts Meadows, threatening to remove his duplicating armband, and Meadows agrees to talk. He tells them how his race was damaged by an explosion on their home world, and lose their identities, and will all die. They need other people’s identities to survive, so they have been stealing humans. They go and find Nurse Pinto, but accidentally remove her armband and she disintegrates, awakening the original nurse Pinto. They release Samantha and learn that Jamie was on the last flight that disappeared.

Jamie meets the director of the Chameleons who is Crossland. He says they have all the people they need and are just going back to get the rest of his people,

The Doctor sets the Commandant to find the originals of the last Chameleons, while he pretends to be Meadows now as the Doctor with Nurse Pinto playing the chameleon version of herself. They get to the space station, but Jamie has been duplicated, letting them know about the Doctor. The Doctor threatens the last Chameleons since their bodies are at the airport, saying they have found the originals (Samantha actually has, since they are hidden in carts at the airport.

The Doctor and Pinto are to be duplicated, but first a Chameleon disintegrated proving that the real staff has been found. Blade and Spencer whose bodies are on earth pull their guns and stage a coup and free the Doctor who negotiates a piece, where all the humans will be released and the Chameleons spared. The Director and Jamie’s duplicate try to take over, but are killed. Blade agrees to the terms, and the freed humans are brought back to Earth.

Jamie says goodbye to Samantha. And Ben and Polly realize that it is the date they left in the Tardis, so the decide to stay, and the Doctor and Jamie go to leave, but see that the TARDIS has been stolen!!

•••

Another fun adventure. Damn I wish they would find all of these on film someplace!

In the TARDIS, the Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer HInes), Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben Jackson (Michael Craze) have just seen a giant claw on the scanner, and they arrive on an Earth Colony in the far future. They exit the TARDIS and run into Medok (Terence Lodge) a Colonist that has escaped from their medical facility, and when Ola (Gertan Klauber) the colony chief of police arrives, they hand the much chagrined Medok over to him, and they too are taken to the Colony. The people here are too happy, with strange songs playing extolling the joys of work, and obeying the Colony Controller (Denis Goacher) and the Colony Pilot (Peter Jeffrey) who gets his orders from the Controller and runs the Colony. Medok is taken to the medical section and locked up because he claims the Colony is infested by giant creatures with huge claws, like what the travellers saw on the TARDIS screen, called the Macra.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The Doctor and his companions are each locked into his own “room” for the night, as the Colony goes down on lockdown and no one is allowed out. The Doctor escapes and goes and frees him, but Medok runs free. The Doctor is arrested.

The Doctor slips away again and finds Medok, learning about the Macra, and the brainwashing they do to people who learn of the Macra. They are soon arrested and returned to the pilot. The Doctor is released, when Medok explains the Doctor was trying to get him to turn himself in.

The Pilot is told by the Controller, to take control of the minds of the 4 travelers to make them like the other colonists. Polly and Jamie resist the mind control and the Doctor destroys the mind control in their rooms, but Ben is quickly taken over, turning against his friends, and gladly working for the colony. He calls Ola to show that the Doctor has tampered with the hypnosis devices in the rooms.

Polly goes to investigate the Macra, and is attacked, which snaps Ben out of it, and he sees the creatures and saves his friend, but Ben tells a different story when he gets in front of the Pilot. When the Pilot calls the Controller, instead of a handsome young man, they see an aged, and terrified old man, who is dragged off the screen by a giant claw. The Pilot is disturbed, but the conditioning kicks back in, and Ben and him return to Macra control.

Ben is allowed to go free, but the Doctor, Polly and Jamie are put to work in the Danger Gang in the most treacherous part of the mine, with Jamie and Polly working with Medok, with the Doctor put in the control room because of his “age.”

Jamie and Medok manage to escape, but Medok is killed by a Macra, and Jamie ends up on the run through mining tunnels with Macra after him. The Macra seem to stop without the poison gas, but move perfectly when it is around.

The Doctor manages to understand the formulas the Colony is working on, and starts to sow some doubt in Ben and the Pilot.

The Doctor manages to work out the gas flow into the mines, and uses it to reverse the gas flow from the mine, slowing the Macra, and saving Jamie. Polly is now working with the Doctor.

The Doctor and Polly take over the control area, and find it filled with Macra, and he realizes the gas is what keeps the Macra alive, and that the humans are only serving the Macra as slaves.

Ola is after the travelers, but the Doctor gets the Pilot to follow, and takes him to see the Macra in control, breaking his conditioning. Control has Ola try to kill them with gas, but Ben who has broken his conditioning as well, saves them, destroying Control, and killing the Macra.

The Colonists want the Doctor to be the new pilot, so the and his companions slip out, leaving the Pilot in control.

•••

Another really fun Troughton adventure!

The Doctor (the great Patrick Troughton) manages to land the TARDIS, this time on Earth’s moon in the year 2070. He with his companions Polly (Anneke Wills), Ben Jackson (Michael Craze) and his new companion the Scotish HIghlander Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) head out in spacesuits to play on the moon surface. Jamie though is hurt in the low gravity. They band finds a Moonbase, which they head towards. The base is run by Hobson (Patrick Barr) who runs the Earth Weather Controller from the moon surface with a large machine called the Gravitron. The moonbase is having trouble with people collapsing into comas with some strange infection going though their whole bodies, and showing up as spider web like veins, making the base quarantined. The Travelers arrive in this mess, and the Doctor tries to see what he can do, putting Jamie into the sickbay, and trying to learn if he can help these people cure whatever it is that ails them.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The Moonbase has also lost some air, and a crewman has been lost in food storage, as well as the radio being monitored from somewhere else on the moon.

Jamie in the sickbay starts ranting about the Phantom Piper coming to take him away to his death, and they just all believe he is delirious, but in fact he saw a Cyberman!

Polly though does see a Cyberman, and informs the Doctor, and the Cybermen are taking away the bodies of the infected crew members.

Hobson tries to keep up with Earth’s demands for Weather control, but with a skeleton crew is unable to function correctly, and assume he will soon lose his job.

The Doctors realizes the virus, is neurotropic and is spreading through the moonbases sugar supply from Food storage. The Cybermen come out from a hole from outside into food storage, and take over part of the base. They want the Graviton to destroy human life on Earth, so that they can take over. They have used 3 of the infected crew members who now obey their commands to go in and take over the Gravitron.

Jamie finally recovers, and with Ben and Polly they manage to fight their way out of the medical wing, and the first wave of cybermen are dispatched, but more of there flying saucers land, and a large invasion force heads toward them, also destroying a relief craft heading from Earth.

The Doctor gets Hobson to help him re-align the Gravitron and they just manage to use to destroy the Cybermen and their ships as the Cybermen use a cannon to punch wholes into the moonbase.

The Doctor and his companions slip away.

Back in the TARDIS they activate a scanner and see a huge claw on the screen, which is where they are going to land.

•••

Fun, though I wish Jamie had more of a part. Still it was great to see part of this episode on the Lost Episodes, I just wish they had used the CD with narration for the missing audio and then shown the missing episodes, but I am glad to have been able to see part of it!

The TARDIS lands on a deserted beach of a volcanic island. The Doctor (The late great Patrick Troughton) looks at Tidal pools, while Jamie (Frazer Hines), Ben (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills) explore the volcano. Polly goes into a cave seeing a strange object, but it is a reproduction, making her realize it is the 1960′s, just after her time, but then she is grabbed. Ben and Jamie come to get her, and they too are grabbed, and so is the Doctor, and they are tied up and sent down an elevator shaft going deep under the volcano. They are given food, which the Doctor eats, and realizes it is the seaweed of the supposedly late Professor Zaroff (Jospeh Furst), and then they are led to be sacrificed to sharks, but the Doctor gives a servant girl named Ara (Catheine Howe) a message to give to Zaroff. Zaroff is intrigued, and frees the Doctor and agrees to free his friends as well, angering the high priest Lolem (Peter Stephens). Zaroff likes that the Doctor lied to him, and brings him onto his scientific staff, as he plans to raise the Atlantis to the surface. Jamie and Ben are sent to work in the mines, but Polly is taken by a scientist named Damon (Colin Jeavons) to have surgery to be turned into the underwater farming (as Zarof’s food cannot be preserved and only lasts a day) as Fish People.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The Doctor convinces Ara to help him free Polly, and he manages to interrupt the power supply so Ara can free Polly, and she takes her for safety to the temple.

The Doctor learns that Zaroff is completely crazy, and he plans on draining the oceans to bring Atlantis to the surface, but his method will also destroy the Earth, revenge for him being treated by surface dwellers, before finding the Atlanteans.

Ben and Jamie go to work in the mines, where they meet two sailors whose boat sank, named Jacko (Paul Anil) and Sean (P.G. Stephens) who they make friends with, and all 4 escape through the mines, eventually finding their way to a secret passage under the Atlantean temple of Amdo, finding Polly and realizing that someone was tricking these people long ago.

The Doctor goes and meets the priest Ramo (Tom Watson) who does not like Zaroff, and the Doctor shows him what Zaroff’s plans really are. Ramo sneaks the Doctor in to see the king Thous (Noel Johnson) to tell him what is going on, but Thaos calls in Zaroff, and hands the Doctor and Ramo over to him as prisoners.

The Doctor and Ramo are taken to be sacrificed, but Polly and the others use the temple to trick the people and save the Doctor and Tamo.

It is reported that Amdo has returned, but Zaroff is pissed, and the kind starts to see that he might in fact be totally crazy.

The Doctor realizes that the societies weakness is Zaroff’s food, which cannot as of yet be preserved, so he sends down Sean and Jacko to convince the Food people to strike. The quickly do, and the city is thrown into chaos as food supplies quickly dwindle.

The Doctor, Jamie, Ben and Polly head off to get Zaroff, going through the Atlantean market, with Jamie being able to join into Zaroff’s guard. Zaroff is taken, and taken to the room behind the temple. Zaroff fakes being sick, and grabs a trident, and stabs Ramo and escapes.

Zaroff goes to the king, who needs food for his people, but Zaroff shoots him.

The Doctor gets to Thous (the King) and has him taken tot he temple, and then goes to flood the lower levels of Atlantis to try and stop Zaroff from destroying the world.

Sean and Jacko help to evacuate the Atlanteans, while the Doctor and Ben manage to start the flood. It is all Jamie and Polly can do not to drown.

The Doctor and Ben confront Zaroff, trapping him behind a grill, keeping him from activating his Earth destroying device, and drowning him.

The Doctor and Ben find Jamie and Polly, and they return to the TARDIS, but as they dematerialize they are thrown across the room.

••••

I would love to see more than the little clips, as I loved what the fish people looked like. Lets hope this is found someday!

The Tardis lands in Scotland in the 1700′s just at the end of the Battle of Culloden with the Briitsh forces having defeated the Highlander army under Prince Charles. The British forces are moving in to kill any survivors and steal anything they can steal to make some money. The Doctor (Patrick Troughton) finds the hat of the Prince, but discards it when he reads it’s shield, causing loyal highlanders to capture him, along with Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben (Michael Craze). They are taken to a broken down cottage where Laird Colin McLaren (Donald Bissett) is resting having been wounded badly. He is attended by his daughter Kirsty (Hannah Gordon) his son Alexander (William Dysart) and his young piper, Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines). Ben accidentally sets off a gun, sending a patrol towards them, and Alexander goes off and dies trying to lead them off and is killed in the process. They are found by Lt. Algernon Finch (Michael Elwyn) and his hard as nails Sergeant (Peter Welch). Polly and Kirsty manage to slip away, and the Lt. goes after them with a few men, leaving the sergeant behind, and he decides to hang the rest.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Polly and Kirsty hide in a cave, where Polly sees Kirsty’s father’s wring, which she wants to trade for the life of their friends and family, but Kirsty will not give it up. Polly leaves, and ends up in an animal trap, as does Kirsty when she tries to get her out, but they manage to trap Finch there, and take money and his ID so they can use it against him if necessary.

On the battlefield Solicitor Grey (David Garth) who happens to be the Royal Commissioner of Prisoners has a plan to sell as many Highlanders as he can into slavery in the colonies to make as much money as he can, and is working with a sea captain named Trask (Dallas Cavell). He manages to get the prisoners from the Sergeant, and are taken to the prison at Inverness.

The sergeant goes and saves Finch.

The Doctor pretends to be a foreigner with information on Prince Charles, and manages to escape from Grey and his secretary Perkins (Sydney Arnold),

Trask releases Grey and the prisoners are taken to his ship the Annabelle. They try and trick the Highlanders into signing on as indentured servants for 7 years, and they realize it is slavery, but otherwise they will die. Ben, Jamie and the Laird refuse to sign, along with the former ship captain WIllie McKay (ANdrew Downie) who Trask stole the ship from. Ben ends up attacking Grey, and Trask has him tied up and thrown overboard.

Ben used an old magic trick to tighten his muscles and escapes, and manages to swim to shore.

The Doctor disguises himself as a maid as well as a German and manages to get free, and reunite with Polly and Kirsty. And then finds Ben at the shore.

The Doctor goes to grey, showing the colors of Connie Prince Charlie and his ring, and says they can get him and share the $15000 pound reward, and says he is on Trasks boat.

He goes to identify him, as Polly and Kirsty bring guns to the captured highlanders from a dingy, and when the doctor identifies the Piper Jamie as the Prince, the Highlanders attack, and manage to take the ship back. McKay is captain again, taking Perkins with him, to sail to France and Freedom.

The Doctor, along with Ben and Polly, with Jamie as a guide and Grey as a hostage try to head back to the Tardis, but Grey manages to get free. Grey returns to try and arrest them with soldiers, but they have found FInch, and he acts like a gentleman, and arrests Grey for his illegal activities, since Grey cannot find the indentured servant documents which the Doctor has stolen.

Polly kisses Finch, and they return to the Tardis, getting Jamie to come with them.

•••

Damn I wish I could watch this one, but it is doubtful it will ever be found. Fun as can be though!