Michael Falkner

Doctor Who: Warriors of the Deep (4 episodes, s21e01-e04, 1984)   Welcome to the dark ethical corner. We last saw the Silurians and the Sea Devils in the Third Doctor’s era, and now they’re teaming up to attack an underwater base. From the opening and the title, I assume that’s where the base

Doctor Who: Twentieth Series Summary   It’s a bump up at the very least. The Nineteenth Series was a low water mark, and this group of serials recovered enough to join several others in a grouping just below the to-date average. The focus of the Twentieth Series appeared to be

Doctor Who: The King’s Demons (2 episodes, s20e21-e22, 1983)   It’s half a nod to the black and white era with a pseudo-historical story. In medieval Europe, King John of England feels that his reception at Lord Ranulf Fitzwilliam’s castle is insufficient, leading to the challenge of a duel between

Doctor Who: Enlightenment The Black Guardian Trilogy, Part III (4 episodes, s20e17-e20, 1983)   Mawdryn high and Terminus low, finish strong by Enlightenment‘s glow? In true K9 style, Turlough is playing chess with Tegan while she helps the Doctor diagnose the TARDIS. For whatever reason, the time capsule is losing

Doctor Who: Terminus The Black Guardian Trilogy, Part II (4 episodes, s20e13-e16, 1983)   The trilogy gets stuck in the mud. Picking up right where we left off, Turlough is wandering the corridors of the TARDIS, sabotaging the time capsule at the Black Guardian’s guidance. A skeptical Tegan stumbles across him

Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead The Black Guardian Trilogy, Part I (4 episodes, s20e09-e12, 1983)   The Key to Time comes home to roost. A schoolboy named Turlough steals (and totals) the Brigadier’s car, offering quite the introduction to a new companion. He has an out of body experience after the

Doctor Who: Snakedance (4 episodes, s20e05-e08, 1983)   Someone felt a need to revisit Kinda? The adventure opens with a mysterious man and his necklace as they sit on a barren planet. Creepy and kooky, but not particularly ooky. On board the TARDIS, Nysssa tries on a new outfit while the

Doctor Who: Arc of Infinity (4 episodes, s20e01-e04, 1983)   A Time Lord is fooling around with the bio-data extracts of the Doctor and communicating with a mysterious holographic figure, an act that only a High Councilmember can perform. When he is discovered, he kills the security guard and disables

Doctor Who: Nineteenth Series Summary   From second best to last place in the span of seven stories. The Eighteenth Series was remarkable in how it essentially redeemed the Fourth Doctor’s run, coming in tied for silver and even besting that era’s premiere season. The Nineteenth Series saw that high bar,

Doctor Who: Time-Flight (4 episodes, s19e23-e26, 1982)   This is what happens when supersonic goes supertemporal. A Concorde is completing a trans-Atlantic flight to London when it disappears without a trace. On the TARDIS, the travelers have wrapped up the loose ends from Earthshock but not the grief from Adric’s sacrifice.

Doctor Who: Earthshock (4 episodes, s19e19-e22, 1982)   It wasn’t seeing him blown to bits. It was the silence at the end. On Earth, a squad of soldiers led by Lieutenant Scott climb a hillside in a search for a missing science team. Professor Kyle, the lone survivor, accompanies them. The