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Survival Format Reviewed: VHS Review After many turbulent years, Doctor Who went into limbo after the broadcast of Survival. It had come under heavy criticism from several quarters, but had managed to maintain good audience figures. The dissenters eventually had their day though and Doctor Who was cancelled indefinitely. After a long wait, it did return obviously, but every fan can look back at Survival as the end of an era of television, and the temporary demise of one of the most loved TV characters ever. Survival brings the Doctor and Ace back to Perivale, Ace's home, and they discover things are not quite what they seem. People are disappearing, stray cats are causing disturbances and a self-defence group with an almost vigilante bent has roots in Ace's old youth club. Ace goes to a park, and finds a black cat that becomes a cheetah on horseback and transports Ace to another planet where she meets Shreela, Midge and Derek who are all old friends. The Doctor meanwhile succumbs to a similar transportation along with the leader of the self-defence group Paterson. The Doctor and Paterson are taken to a Cheetah tent, where the Master is waiting. As they try to get away from the planet which is about to break up, a fight ensues between the Humans and Cheetahs. Ace gets away and finds an injured Cheetah by a lake and helps her. The Master then tells the Doctor that the planet is breaking up as the Cheetahs are linked to it, and any beings here get affected by it whenever there is conflict. Some, including the Master and Midge (now under the Masters control and heavily affected by the planet. The Doctor and Ace find Midge and the Master and a fight ensues. A Cheetah, Karra, appears on horseback and scares the Masters hypnotised cohorts off, but is killed by the Master. The Doctor then confronts the Master and a final fight back on the other planet happens, with the Doctor only escaping when he realises he cannot fight to survive. This transports him back to Earth, and he finds Ace who has been affected by the Cheetah planet and says it will always live on inside her. This is a story that generally gets a mixed reception. Many like it, many don't. Personally I think that it is one of the gems of the era. The story itself is an interesting one, with the conflict of the cat people causing the destruction of their world. The main thing though is the excecution of the story. I feel it comes accross so well on screen, and stands the test of time to be a good example of television in this era, not just Doctor Who. Reintroducing the Master here too is good, although a clearly aging Anthony Ainley doesn't have the spring in his step of some nearly 10 years previous when he was introduced. The Sylvester McCoy - Sophie Aldred partnership was by now settled into being a very charismatic double act with genuine chemistry. Both put in good performances and bring the story to life. The story also features Anthony Ainley as the Master. It is probably a function of my age and when I grew up, but I love Ainley playing the Master. He really terrified me as a kid, and I still appreciate his performances as an adult. The rest of the cast is rather a mixed bag. We have decent enough performances from some of Ace's friends and Sargeant Paterson, but other actors leave you cold such as Hale and Pace. The only real problem with this story is that it is never really explained why all this is happening. We have the Cheetah people, why is their world linked to them? Why do they not realise that the more they fight the quicker their world ends? Why are people turned into Cheetah people? Why is the Master involved? All of this is more of something that might annoy upon repeated viewing. On first or second watch these points make very little difference. Overall, Survival provides a fitting end to an era of Doctor Who on television. It is a good story and largely well executed on screen. Sadly it brings to an end the involvement of Sophie Aldred in the television adventures, and I think it's a real shame we can't have a 'retrospective series' to bridge the gap between this story and the 1996 TV movie. Good all round effort though on Survival. Rating:  |