4.14: The Deadly Assassin

In which we go to space Oxbridge, and thence venture into nightmares.

Broadcast: October-November 1976

Watched: June 2020

The Deadly Assassin, Part One

“WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE MAGIC OF DOCTOR WHO???” [Okay, an explanation on the offchance anyone under 35 happens to be reading. The way this story reframed our idea of Gallifrey meant got it an absolutely furious review from the head of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. If you grew up in fandom in the 90s, for some reason, you would know these things even if they happened before you were born. I cannot for the life of me explain why. Anyway, onwards:]

Never did understand his objections to be honest. This is one I saw, aged about 12, knowing literally nothing about it and it blew my mind. Was the problem just that it portrays Time Lords as codgers rather than gods?

Anyway, the portrayal of Gallifrey as some weird cross between Space Oxbridge and the Catholic Church is great, and fits the Doctor’s character perfectly. Also something I hadn’t really twigged before – it’s clear from the outset that the Time Lords aren’t all of Gallifreyan society, Runcible is broadcasting to people who clearly aren’t allowed in, there are references to plebian classes, etc.

The opening scroll is an interesting device – attempt to make it seem more mythic? Not buying “the most dangerous crisis of their history” stuff though, I mean come on.

Other thoughts: the Doctor talks to himself, BF-style, in the TARDIS. The Castellan is a terrible actor. 

The stupid robes the Time Lords get lumbered with forever more are explicitly ceremonial, they’re not meant to be just lounging around in them.

The cliffhanger, in which the Doctor seems to shoot the president, is, despite being something foreshadowed in a vision two minutes into the episode, weirdly traumatic.

The Deadly Assassin, Part Two

The last five minutes, in which a succession of faceless figures from nightmares threaten the Doctor in a variety of ways, was one of the first things in Doctor Who I ever found scary or traumatic. (Others: the cliffhangers to Terminus 1 and Revelation 1.) I think it’s the mask, goggles etc that means no one has an identity.

It’s very effective but also sort of mental that the story takes this handbreak turn from political thriller into terrifying dream world. Also – the Doctor doesn’t seem to have heard of the Matrix before. That happens a lot with important Gallifreyan stuff, doesn’t it? One story no one’s ever heard of it, the next everyone’s known about it forever.

The Master’s character is so totally unlike Delgado’s portrayal – he was never motivated by hatred – which is weird as [writer Robert] Holmes was the first to write him, wasn’t he? (Did he devise the character too?) How many times have the Time Lords put the Doctor on Trial now? I can think of at least three (War Games, this, Trial), has the new series done any? Arguably Heaven Sent I guess.

Other things: Goth is right, Article 17 is stupid, you shouldn’t be able to get out of a murder trial by running for president.

The chalk outline of the president and his robes is hilarious.

Love that the effect to show the Doctor entering the Matrix is the title sequence; also that the scarf, once again, is a weapon.

The long distance shot of the torture chamber is pretty cool

Was Jan Vincent-Rudzki’s problem literally just that Gallifrey is an actual place now?

The Deadly Assassin, Part Three

This is one of those brilliant episodes that feels incredibly Doctor Who, despite being nothing like any other episode of Doctor Who. It’s just two blokes trying to kill each other in a jungle for 24 minutes. Holmes pulling his old “keep mixing it up every episode” trick again.

It’s also an advert for the power of striking visuals. I remember the clown, the samurai, the trains, etc. I’d forgotten the hints there are dinosaurs about (when the Doctor steps in an egg) because we never see them. Someone should have made this point to Louis Marks before he wrote Mandragora.

The Doctor is also at his most physical here. We sort of forget that early Tom gets a lot of action stuff (hangover from Pertwee, I assume) because he ends up as a clown, but this is probably, along with Seeds of Doom, the most traditional action hero he ever gets. 

The idea it’s a jungle is created almost entirely through the sound effects, isn’t it? Some of the dialogue gets lost in the mix, alas.

Other things: the Master’s plan is mental. How exactly did they know the Doctor would end up in the Matrix? The Doctor’s foot has to move to end up trapped in the points. Editing error or sign that Goth is in control?

The Deadly Assassin, Part Four

“No answer to a straight question. Typical politician.” Bit harsh, he’s just carked it.

I do love this story, it’s so much fun and it blew my mind as a kid. But... it’s not quite the epic it wants to be is it? For all the “greatest threat” bollocks, it’s the sort of thing that happens to Sunnydale most weeks, it’s a standard adventure plot. That’s why the opening scroll is there isn’t it? The Doctor’s first trip back to Gallifrey *should* be epic, so Holmes puts that in... but it’s all in the framing, not in the actual story.

Re “WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE MAGIC OF DOCTOR WHO?” – the thought occurs that stuff about Gallifrey, like stuff about the Doctor, exists on a continuum from “lonely gods” to “just some clever old blokes, really”. This story leans hard on the latter interpretation (created it, really) by making Gallifrey Space Oxbridge, not Mount Olympus, and that inevitably pisses people off.

Other things: “What’s so special about the president?” is a brilliantly Doctor Who line, the assumption that political power doesn’t really matter.

Weird that, in the TV movie, Philip Segal forgot the Eye of Harmony is on Gallifrey because it’s such a key plot point here.

Borusa looks distracting like Mark Gatiss.

“Engin” is the French word for “contraption”.