Doctor Who - The Daemons Review

With Missy/ The Master returning we thought it would be good to take a look back at a few of the classic series stories that feature The Master.

Doctor Who:
The Daemons
By Guy Leopold

“Chap with the wings there. Five rounds rapid.”

There are strange things going on at Devils End.  There is an archeologist dig at The Devils Hump where a witch by the name of Miss Hawthorne is trying to get Professor Horner to stop as she believes great evil will be released.  While catching wind of this The Doctor and Jo head off to Devils End to Devils End and see if they can put a stop to it as The Doctor believes that Miss Hawthorne is indeed right.   To make matters worse The Master is posing as a Vicar for the town and is hoping that whatever is in Devils Hump will give him unlimited power.   The Master is already using black magic to help his cause and using the gargoyle Bok to do his bidding and to help keep a strangle hold on his control over the town.

What lies in Devils Hump is the alien Azal that looks like a version of the devil.  As they open the hatch of what happens to be his ship The Doctor tries in vain to stop them but is too late as the cavern is hit with a cold blast of air which freezes The Doctor and signals the coming of Azal as he is now free to roam the countryside.  So it’s up to The Doctor, when he thaws out, and UNIT to save all of humanity from Azal and The Master.

Doctor Who - The Claws of Axos Review

With Missy/ The Master returning we thought it would be good to take a look back at a few of the classic series stories that feature The Master.

Doctor Who:
Claws of Axos
By Bob Baker and 
Dave Martin

“The claws of Axos are already deeply embedded in the Earth's carcass! Soon it'll activate its nutrition cycle and the feast will begin. The Axonite'll cease to be dormant and it'll continue to grow, gentlemen, until every living thing is consumed.”

A space ship is heading to earth and UNIT is on alert.  The Doctor is curious of its nature but as usual he gets put off by the humans that want to destroy it.  In particular with a Mr. Chinn from the Ministry that orders a missile strike.   When that fails and the missiles given the abort order UNIT goes to the area where the ship has landed which is near a power plant.

Doctor Who - Terror of the Autons Review

With Missy/ The Master returning we thought it would be good to take a look back at a few of the classic series stories that feature The Master.

Doctor Who:
Terror of the Autons
By Robert Holmes

“You are incorrigibly meddlesome, Doctor, but we've always felt that your hearts are in the right places. But be careful. The Master has learnt a great deal since you last met him.”

There is a new threat for The Doctor.  The renegade Time Lord The Master has made his way to Earth to cause havoc and to take it over.  This time his allies are the Nestene and their plastic servants the Autons. In exchange for the power he craves The Master helps to hatch the Nestenes plan to take over Earth.  The Master has taken up residency in the plastics factory owned by the Farrel family.   The Doctor is warned about the Master coming to Earth by a pompous Time Lord who says The Master is not the same push over as before.

Trailer for Doctor Who DVD Release "The Mind of Evil"

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: Jon Pertwee The Third Doctor

 

“Obviously the Time Lords have programmed the TARDIS always to return to Earth. It seems that I am some kind of a galactic yo-yo!”

Jon Pertwee took over from Patrick Troughton and had the task of taking the show in a different direction and helped keep it going as it was almost canceled.  I think we all know he succeeded in doing that.   Plus he was The Doctor of action and his Doctor used his mind to come up with gadgets that helped in him saving the day from all the alien threats that happened.

Jon Pertwee’s Doctor was bad tempered at times and quick to blow his stack but look at it from his point of view.  He was exiled to Earth and lost the knowledge to operate the TARDIS and plus The Doctor had to deal with The Brigadier all the time.  H Yes he can be quite rough at times but he also had a tender side one that you can see all the time he traveled with Jo.  Yes he snapped at her, and frankly she did deserve it at times, but he really had a soft spot for her which was quite evident at the end of The Green Death.  You knew by his reaction from Jo leaving him that he did and that makes the tough and gruff Time Lord a big softie at heart.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: The Seventies

Ah The 70’s.  Oh how I don’t remember you.  It was the decade I was born in. It was the decade that Vietnam ended and unfortunately it was the decade that gave us disco.  Why god, why did disco come to fruition and why did the Bee Gees go to the dark side.  Speaking of the Darkside the 70’s also gave us Star Wars and the return of Star Trek with that very forgettable movie.  But for Doctor Who the 70’s was a decade of stability.  A decade where you knew, that on Saturday at tea time, you would be in for a treat. A treat brought to you by the two longest serving actors in the role.  Of course I’m talking about Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.

Jon Pertwee heralded a different direction for the show.  Not only was the show being filmed in color but his Doctor was exiled to earth.  For his first three seasons the Third Doctor was earth bound and defended it against alien threats.  The UNIT years were quite different.  In fact you could look to those seasons as a precursor to shows like Fringe and The X- Files to name a few.  The UNIT years gave us some good characters like Liz Shaw, Captain Yates, Sgt. Benton and of course The Brigadier.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: Frontier In Space

 

Doctor Who:

Frontier In Space

By Malcolm Hulke

“You know as well as I do that this man does not fear death. I want him to suffer a much worse punishment. Look, my skill and cunning has brought about this war which will make you the masters of the galaxy. Leave the Doctor with me, and let him see the result of that war. Let him see the galaxy in ruins. Let him see the planet Earth, that he loves so much, in ruins, then exterminate him.”

WAR, WAR, WAR !!!!  War is on the horizon between two of the mightiest empires in the solar system.  Earth and Draconia are on the brink of war.  Each government is accusing the other of attacking its ships and stealing the cargo on board.  Of course each government denies the accusations but the trust between the two empires is wearing thin.  Each planets population is banging the war drum looking for blood in retaliation to the attacks. 

The Doctor and Jo seem to be stuck in the middle as they are quickly accused of being enemy agents.  While on an Earth ship that appears to be attacked by Draconians Jo sees something else.  Jo in fact sees Ogrons instead of Draconians.  The problem is The Doctor and Jo can not get the two governments to believe them and the Earth government puts The Doctor on the moon in one of their prisons.  Then The Master shows up and all becomes clear.  Or does it? Or is The Master doing all this for a 3^rd Empire? That Empire is none other than The Daleks an Empire that has been dormant for a while and would love to see a war between Earth and Draconia so they can swoop in and take over the universe.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: The Time Monster

Doctor Who:

The Time Monster

By Robert Sloman

“Welcome! Welcome to your new Master!”

The Master is yet again trying to take over the world and be master of time as well.  This time he is at Newton Institute posing as Professor Thascalos where he has constructed a device called TOMTIT. TOMTIT is a Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time device and the Master is using that to gain control of Kronos a creature that has control of time.  The problem is the creature can be summoned by The Master but he cannot control the creature even when The Master travels back to Atlantis to get the real crystal of Kronos which proves troublesome also.   So it’s up to The Doctor to try and save humanity from The Master and his craziest plan yet.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: The Sea Devils By @Paul_Bowler

Doctor Who:

The Sea Devils

By Malcome Hulke

Reviewed By Paul Bowler 

"Yes, but the catastrophe that you predicted never happened. And the apes that you left behind on the surface to die became man."

The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Jo (Katy Manning) decide to visit their old enemy, the Master (Roger Delgado), who has been imprisoned on an island prison off the south coast of England. After learning from the governor, Colonel Trenchard (Clive Morton), that ships have gone missing in the area, the Doctor decides to investigate and visit’s Captain Hart (Edwin Richfield) at the Naval base, where he discovers that all the ships have all disappeared in the vicinity of an old abandoned Sea Fort. The Doctor and Jo take a boat out to the fort and are attacked by a Sea Devil, an amphibious species, who once ruled the Earth in prehistoric time alongside their Silurian cousins.

Realizing that the Master is behind the theft of equipment at the Naval base, and was assisted by Trenchard, the Doctor tries to stop the renegade Time Lord from escaping, but he is too late to stop him from reviving the Sea Devils from hibernation. After narrowly escaping a Sea Devil on the beach, the Doctor and Jo escape through a mine field. Returning to the Naval base to warn Captain Hart, they lean that a submarine has gone missing. Determined not to make the same mistakes as he did with the Silurians, the Doctor uses a diving bell to reach the Sea Devils underwater base, but his attempts to find a peaceful solution are dashed when the Navy are ordered to attack the base with depth charges.

The Doctor helps the crew of the submarine escape and they return to the surface, but he is captured again when the Sea Devils attack the Naval Base. Back at the Sea Devils base the Doctor sabotages the Master’s machinery, the Sea Devils turn on them both, but they manage to escape before the underwater base is destroyed by a huge explosion. When they return to the surface the Master uses a disguise to distract everyone so he can escape in a hovercraft.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: The Daemons By @Paul_Bowler

 

Doctor Who:

The Daemons

By Guy Leopold

Reviewed By Paul Bowler 

“Chap with the wings there. Five rounds rapid.”

 

Strange mystical forces seem to be gathering around the village of Devil’s End where an ancient barrow is being investigated by Professor Horner (Robin Wentworth). The archaeological dig at the barrow is also being filmed be a television crew, who intend to show live coverage of the event on BBC Three as the Professor attempts to breach the inner chamber at the stroke of midnight. Alarmed by what forces the Professor might unleash, the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Jo Grant (Katy Manning) travel to Devil’s End to stop the dig but arrive too late, and the Professor and the Doctor are both enveloped in a freezing blast of energy from inside the barrow.

With the Professor dead and the Doctor frozen in ice, Jo seeks help from the villages. Having seen everything happen on TV, Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin) and Sgt Benton (John Levene) take the Brigadier’s helicopter to Devil’s End to go and help Jo and the Doctor. After they arrive the Doctor quickly recovers, leaving them free to explore the village, and together with the help of the white witch Mrs Hawthorn (Damaris Hayman), they discover that the local vicar - Mr Magister - is really the Master (Roger Delgado) who has been using black magic rituals to summon the monstrous Azal to the cavern beneath the church. The Doctor explains that Azal is the last of a race of beings known as the Daemons, their super science is so powerful is appears to work like magic, and their spaceship is actually miniaturized inside the barrow itself.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: Colony in Space

Doctor Who:

Colony In Space

By Malcolm Hulke

“Then we must restore his freedom for as long as it serves our purpose.”

The Time Lords have sent the The Doctor and Jo on an errand for them.  They have noticed that The Master has stolen the plans for The Doomsday Weapon and need The Doctor to stop him from getting his hands on the weapon and thus putting the universe in his hands.  The Time Lords dump The Doctor and Jo on the planet Uxarieus where he discovers that the colonists are in a bitter dispute with the mining company IMC.   IMC wants the planet desperately and will do anything to get it so they can mine duralinium which is one of the richest minerals in the universe.

The despute has gotten heated as colonists have been ending up dead killed by an IMC robot with animal claws attached to it.  It has gotten pretty heated on both sides as it has gotten pretty violent to the point where an Adjudicator has been called in to settle the dispute between both parties.  The problem is this adjudicator is not what he seems.  In fact it is The Master and he could care less of the squabble between the two groups as he is only interested in the old city of the planets inhabitants. A city that is home to the most destructive weapon in the universe The Doomsday Weapon.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: The Mind of Evil

Doctor Who:

The Mind of Evil

By Don Houghton

“The mind of evil, Jo. I should have realized. That creature feeds on the evil impulses of the brain.”

Three situations that are linked together and it is nothing to do with the involvement of UNIT with all these scenarios.  In fact while he is trapped on Earth due to the fact of The Doctor stealing his dematerialization circuit from his Tardis The Master is up to no good trying to take over the Earth and he has a very complex and ingenious plan on achieving that goal.  First he is trying to disrupt the World Peace Conference by getting the Chinese and Americans to go t war against one another by killing off each countries delegates. Then there is the missile that has nerve gas and is scheduled to be dumped into the ocean where it will be safe from being used against humanity.  The Master plans on stealing this missile and aiming it at any European city.

 Then there is Stangmoor Prison where the mysterious Keller Machine resides.  It is a device that takes the evil out of the prisoner’s minds and makes them pacifist and able to rejoin society.  But an unexplained rash of strange deaths like drowning in a dry room and eaten by rats in a ratless building has The Doctor thinking that all these events could be related.   So when these types of deaths is happening at the conferences and the prisoners take over the jail The Doctor and Jo are trapped by The Master and are an added bonus to his plans of world domination. That and the Keller Machine has a mind of its own as The Master will eventually lose control of its alien ally and that is a bigger threat to his plans.