Doctor Who 088: The Deadly Assasin written by Robert Holmes, directed by David Maloney (1976)
24 September 2009You never forget your first Doctor, and Tom Baker was my first, so I will always remember him, and amazing episodes like this are part of the reason why. Not only does he shine here, but this Manchurian Candidate-esque tale of intrigue on Gallifrey is one of the best Doctor Who stories all the way around, and I finally know what happened to him after he left Sarah Jane Smith on Earth to return to Gallifrey. Honestly I would have loved a few more stories sans companion of they were going to be this darn good! If you read my blog you also know I love episodes about Gallifrey, and while this is not the first, it really did set what the Timelord Homeworld was like for years to come, the look, the feel, and all the intrigue. We finally see that the other Timelords are not these benevolent watchers of time, but are petty and power hungry, and very very human. This series also features about an entire episode fought in a “virtual” computer world, which is action packed, and fun as can be. This really is one of my all-time favorite episodes!
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.
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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!
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