Doctor Who Story 123: Time Flight by Ron Jones (1982)
10 April 2009At first I was not a fan of Peter Davison, the fifth Doctor, because he replaced my favorite doctor, Tom Baker the fourth, but after starting to watch more of Davison I have realized that I actually really like the quirky fifth doctor, and this was an enjoyable adventure. And one that added to the fun by adding in the then very high tech, and now defunct Concorde, and also featuring one of the Doctor’s best villains. This is an enjoyable adventure, and well worth checking out.
The Concorde Golf Victor Foxtrot is coming in for a landing at Heathrow, when it’s signal breaks up, and the plane disappears. On the TARDIS, the Doctor (Peter Davison), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and the reluctant Tegan (Janet Fielding) hit some turbulence, and end up being drawn to the spot where the Concorde disappeared, so they land at Heathrow, and go out to see what is going on. The authorities see the police box, and the Doctor has them call Unit, and is put in charge of the investigation. They get another Concrode, Gold Alpha Charlie, and have the Tardis loaded aboard and the Doctor and his companions go with Captain Stapley (RIchard Waston) to go find the other Concorde. They find the disturbance, and the Concorde passes through it, though it seems they are landing at Heathrow, in fact they have travelled back 140 million years into the past, and it is a form of psychokinetic energy that is making them see things, and when they manage to clear their heads they find the other Concorde, as well as a citadel, and the remains of an alien spacecraft that has crashed some time before. The Doctor of course sets out to investigate.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….
The Doctor and Tegan go to investigate, and Stapley, and his crewmembers Bilton (Mihael Cashman) and Scobie (Keith Drinkel) see the other crew under some control, and stealing the TARDIS. The only one not under control is Professor Hayter (Nigel Stock) who believes they have been captured by Russians. The people are helped by beings called Plasmatons which are controlled by the psychokinetic energy.
They head to find out what is happening, and find a strange, seemingly oriental entity named Kalid (Anthony Ainley) who is using some mechanical devices to use he psychokinetic energy. Nyssa seems to hear something from the energy as well, and it wants to help them, so Kalid used the plasmatons to encase her, and keep her from doing anything. Tegan stays with Nyssa, and the Doctor heads to the Citadel with Stapley and Hayter, where the find the cre of Victor-Foxtrot under mind control, and trying to get into a strange sealed chamber. The Concorde crew works to get the other human’s to break the illusions, while the Doctor confronts Kalid. Kalid is using the human’s as slaves to get into the strange capsule.
Kalid lets Nyssa go, as he must use the power, so Nysaa and Tegan head to the Citadel, and somehow get into the chamber the human’s are trying to break into. Nyssa trys to smash the center console of the chamber, and there is an explosion, which stops Kalid, and reveals that he is in fact the Master in diguise, who is trapped in this time zone after escaping from Castrovalva, and he needs a new power source, and wants what is in the capsule.
The Master takes the Tardis from the Doctor, but Stapley has screwed with it, and has the Doctor. THe Doctor and Hayter go to get to the chamber, just as the passengers break in, and they manage to get in and find Nyssa and Tegan who were knocked out.
They find the power source is a sarcophagus containing the power of the ancient race called the Xeraphin, and right now two sides are battling, the good who were trying to recreate their race after it was almost destroyed, and the other who want to get power and go with the Master. Professor Hayter tries to join with them, but is evaporated.
The Master can’t get into the chamber, but he builds a power loop around the chamber, and uses it to get the power, and manages to transport the sarcophagus into his Tardis along with his human slaves. It seems the Doctor is beaten.
The Doctor trades some parts with the master to get him to release the humans, and the Master leaves. They then fix up the one Concorde, and with the Tardis on board manage to bring it back to modern times and land it at Heathrow, and the Doctor who put a limiter in the parts he gave the master, puts his Tardis where the masters should have gone, and the Master’s Tardis is bounced away, sent to modern day Xeriphas, where he hopes they will take their revenge on the Master.
In a rush to leave before being questioned by authorities the Doctor leaves Tegan behind at HEathrow, where she always wanted to get back to, but she is crushed as she wanted to leave with the Doctor.
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Quite an enjoyable episode, and the Doctor lost another companion so quickly after Adric, big changes all the way around.
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