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Time-Flight Format Reviewed: DVD Review Bringing the first season of the Peter Davison tenure to a close is Time-Flight. The first series saw a lot of change in Doctor Who, and it really was trying to re-establish itself following the departure of Tom Baker at the end of the previous season. Such was, and still is, the affection with which Tom Baker is held in the world of Doctor Who, that it could be said Peter Davison was fighting a losing battle before he started. Add to that a general perception that the stories were not as good and you have some real trouble. A concorde vanishes on approach to Heathrow, and The Doctor gets caught up in a convergence and is forced to land on the Heathrow concourse. Quickly establishing his credentials, The Doctor and companions investigate the disappearance of the first Concorde by loading the TARDIS and other equipment onto another Concorde and flying the same path. They also disappear, and have to break a perception filter to discover they have travelled in time by about 140 million years. They go off exploring and find the crew and passengers of the first Concorde, being controlled by Kalid. The crew of the second Concorde try to help the passengers of the first, whilst The Doctor discovers that Kalid is actually The Master, who plans to use the Xeraphin as a new TARDIS power source, one exponentially more powerful than the original. Eventually, The Doctor manages to trick The Master into accepting a deal for a piece of a TARDIS that he has pre-programmed to act differently than expected. The Master is then expelled to Xeriphas with the Xeraphin and the passengers are saved, whilst the Masters TARDIS is likely to be marooned as the component given to him will have burned out. In the scrum that follows, Tegan is accidentally left behind at Heathrow, and The Doctor and Nyssa leave. Time-Flight is often a much maligned story. When writing the above synopsis though I realised that there is actually a lot more story to it than meets the eye initially. There is the plight of the Xeraphin, The Master and his scheming with The Doctor helping the Humans to escape a pre-historic world. It is therefore a shame that the negative aspects of the story outweigh the positives, for example, the companions seem to be shoved aside for a Master-Doctor story, with only Nyssa really having much to do. The story really feels as if it is several ideas that the writer has tried to amalgamate into one story, whilst been forced to rush in so doing. Time-Flight therefore becomes a hotch-potch of plots and situations crammed into four episodes. The main cast here are once again Peter Davison as the Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Janet Fielding as Tegan. Davison gives a fairly typical understated performance, that presumably due to my having grown up with him as The Doctor, seems good and right. Fielding is little involved, but gives her all when required, but Sutton is a real let down here. Her 'athsmatic' acting performance is really not good, and does make you wince on occasion. Anthony Ainley again plays the recurring character of The Master, and again does well with what he is given to work with. Had he been given the tools Delgado had, he would be even more of a legend I feel. Of the guest cast, There are some very patchy performances. These are largely in the background though but Nigel Stock as Professor Hayter looks particularly out of place. The better performances come from the crew of the second Concorde, Richard Easton, Keith Drinkel and Michael Cashman as Captain Stapley, Flight Engineer Scobie and First Officer Bilton respectively. Their performances were better, but not exactly distinguished. The biggest let down in Time-Flight is the special effects and scenery. You get the impression that a lot of money was spent getting permission to film at Heathrow, and little was spent on the effects and sets. The sets really do creak at some stages, and the effects let the story down entirely. When this isn't counter-acted by a tight story, good cast performance or wonderful script, these problems are highlighted even more than they would otherwise. The last criticism of Time-Flight I have is that plot's involving the Master are becoming very convoluted. Fine, he likes his plans but when they are so convoluted complicated so as to become ludicrous they really let down the story. After the success of the character of The Master in the 1970's, Anthony Ainley must have rued the fact that the scripts for him were not of the same quality. Instead of a good solid plot with him, we see instead scientific terms being used to attempt to paper over cracks unsuccessfully. Overall, Time-Flight is a story that is a big let down. Stories that either kick-off, or conclude a season should argueably be the better ones on show, but Time-Flight is a bit of a mess. A rushed and confused script, with some questionable cast performances and overcomplicated plot lines make Time-Flight one story that will be easily forgotten. Rating:  |