Doctor Who: Time-Flight (1982) - Review

And thus we come to end of Doctor Who's nineteenth season in 'Time-Flight', infamous as being one of the worst Who stories to ever grace TV screens. Complete with Kalid (either a culturally insensitive OTT baddie or a campy, nonsensical disguise for the Master), some pretty poor monsters (whose name I struggle to remember, but were essentially grey blobs with legs) and a frankly lackluster set. The Making Of documentary on this disc features almost everyone moaning about the poor production values, and singing the praises of the concord - a strange inclusion into the story.

For what's its worth, I actually quite enjoyed 'Time-Flight'. It's a bit rubbish, yes, but it's rubbish in that campy, silly, OTT way that only classic Doctor Who can achieve. The story starts off with an intriguing mystery with a missing concord, setting the scene at Heathrow airport, boarding a concord, and then gradually dissolving into nonsense once the characters arrive on prehistoric Earth. From the on, it just gets worse and worse. Even the ending is a let-down. Quite what the Master's whole plan is still baffles me - although I assume it all comes down to Universal domination. Anthony Ainley's clearly having some fun here, but his Master so far lacks an interesting dynamic with Peter Davison's Doctor. Perhaps my memory isn't great, but I remember Ainley being better with Tom Baker and Sylvester McCoy (and possibly Colin Baker, but I can't honestly remember their scenes together). Perhaps they warm into their respective roles over time, or perhaps this is just another issue with 'Time-Flight'.

Season 19 does seem to end on a whimper, and if I were a Doctor Who fan in 1982, I'd no doubt be a bit smegged off about that. In 2019 though, I'm just chuffed we've got access to so much Doctor Who. Even if the show itself won't be back for a while, I'm quite content with releases such as Season 19 on Blu-ray. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching this season, and while I have no new favourite Who's, its definitely kept me entertained - and given me more insight into Davison's tenure on the show that I hadn't previously experienced too much of. To end off these write-ups though, here's my full rankings:

1) 'Earthshock' - 8/10
2) 'The Visitation' - 8/10
3) 'Four to Doomsday' - 7/10
4) 'Kinda' - 7/10
5) 'Castrovalva' - 6/10
6) 'Black Orchid' - 6/10
7) 'Time-Flight' - 4/10

Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 19 is available now on Blu-ray.

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