4.42: Logopolis

In which it’s the end – but the moment has been prepared for.

Broadcast: February-March 1981

Watched: November 2020

Two general season 18 thoughts before we begin:

1) It’s interesting how this season completely deconstructs the fourth Doctor era, removing every element and replacing them so that between the end of season 17 and the start of season 19 everything changes... but it happens one step at a time, not all at once.

2) Why does this season not feature more heavily in fan discourse or memory when it’s so bloody good? The dominant age in fandom when the narratives got set? The ratings?

Logopolis, Part One

“They don’t even time travel, just elementary Earth communications devices.”

Love this one. I think it was the third novelisation I ever bought, and one of the earliest videos.

For the first time since I think Dodo’s arrival, we see someone try to use a police box. Between that and the reference to Totters Yard there’s a sort of “back to the beginning” thing I’d never noticed before.

There’s a real sense of tension and approaching doom, too, even if it’s not attached to anything yet. The sinister, unexplained Watcher. The incidental music. The Master’s disembodied laugh, and the creepy bit where the Doctor and Adric go through an apparently infinite series of TARDISes. The cloister bell, which rings conveniently about ninety seconds after the first time it’s ever mentioned. The cloisters look lovely, though. Hadn’t grasped before that the Doctor wants to fix the chameleon circuit because he’s unnerved at how easily the Master hid from him.

The episode ends with Tom Georgeson asking the Doctor to explain why there’s what appears to be a doll in the seat of a car, as if this is something that a policeman would require an explanation for. Which is odd. But otherwise, love it.

Other things: Adric really wants to go to Gallifrey, for some reason; obviously hasn’t seen Invasion of Time, or he’d know it was rubbish. The bit where he’s on top of the police box is quite funny. Lots of unusual high camera angles in the TARDIS for some reason.

Tegan’s posh air hostess voice is also quite funny. Hadn’t realised until I just googled how much older than the other two companions she is.

I love the way the bike falls over when the TARDIS lands around the police box.

Logopolis, Part Two

“There’s gotta be a trick to this, Davis.” Love the confused policemen opening the police box to find the Doctor and Adric have gone.

Something weirdly mundane and humiliating about the Doctor being nicked by the fuzz on the Barnet bypass. That and the jettisoning of Romana’s room both feel like the character is being stripped of his past and his eccentricities.

“Good thing the water’s there to break our fall”. The idea of flushing the TARDIS out is genuinely unhinged.

There’s a moment when the Doctor is talking to the Watcher that he seems to lower his head in defeat that I’ve never noticed before. The Watcher basically tells him what’s going to happen in the next two episodes doesn’t he? (The “chain of circumstances” bit.) The way the Doctor just announces he’s going to ditch Adric, and before Adric even gets irritating, is pretty harsh.

Logopolis (NO GIRLS) is very nicely realised. We’re used to warrior monks, these are sort of mathematician monks. With exposed brains. The fact they steal primitive human technology for their transmitter is a bit odd. The way the Monitor pretends he lied to the Doctor about his being in danger “to have the pleasure of your company” is very charming.

The Doctor and Adric’s exchange of looks when Tegan appears is great. The Guardian’s Martin Belam uses it as a meme. Admittedly, nobody else does, but.

Logopolis, Part Three

“One last hope.” This one really escalates doesn’t it? Two episodes ago it was all about measuring a police box, now the entire universe is in danger (is this the first time?). It’s the same “gradually pull back to reveal something bigger” approach to a regeneration story you get in The War Games, Parting of the Ways or The Doctor Falls. Funny that the Master does it by accident when he only wanted to take over one planet.

Not a physicist, but I am not sure that [writer and script editor Christopher H.] Bidmead’s understanding of the Second Law of Thermodynamics actually makes sense. Love that the CVEs turn out to be a plot point in the season finale though.

“Sabotage!” “Murder.” Adric is no longer the kid who would say, “Eh, screw the slaves, let’s do a runner”. Tegan’s defence of the rights of the worker is presumably meant to be a character note, too. Also, clearly bright, since she works out that when the Doctor says “innocent Earth people” he means Auntie Vanessa. (LOVE the bit where the Doctor says “I’m so sorry” and puts his arm around her purely to steer her out of the way because he’s got bigger things to worry about right now.)

Nyssa’s character note is that she’s so naive she would believe someone who looks a bit like her father but evil and a couple of decades younger is not something to be absolutely terrified of. Oh look, another bit of jewellery that controls whoever wears it. The Master’s attempt to kidnap Nyssa as his companion, and make one of the Doctor’s friends attack another, is also an escalation of stakes.

The Doctor won’t look at his companions (two of whom he is treating as such, as if he knows who the cast of the next season is already) when he does the “I have never chosen the company I keep” bit. Won’t look at the Master as he shakes his hand, either. God Tom is good in this one

“At last, Doctor. At last I’ve cut you down to size.” In Flatline [Tomorrow’s post! These notes were written years ago, so I promise this is a lucky coincidence!] the external shell of the TARDIS shrinking doesn’t cause the Doctor any problems, but hey, you do you. Love the way he freaks out when he sees a giant Tegan, though.

The Logopolitan make up would later be borrowed by Delenn in Babylon 5.

One last thought: the idea that the Doctor won’t be welcome back on Gallifrey if he shakes hands with the Master is very odd: last time he was there he invited a massive alien invasion. Anyway, let’s finish this.

Logopolis, Part Four

“Outside space and time.” Not sure that makes any sense either, Chris, but there we are.

Something this one does very well is keep moving. First it’s the Barnet bypass and measuring police boxes, then trying to drown the TARDIS, then Logopolis with a brief detour into miniaturisation, then the Pharos Project. The last story that jumped around so much was maybe The Hand of Fear? I wonder if it’s deliberate that this one has the Doctor arguing with human authority figures at both the start and the end. .

The fact the Master’s plan is to save a bit of the universe and screw the rest is very him. So is storming off in a huff because Tegan is mean to him.

The moment where the Monitor falls to bits must have been terrifying if you saw it as a kid. [Actually I did see it as a kid, and it wasn’t, so perhaps I’m talking crap.]

LOVE the astronomer who’s so distracted by listening to music that he doesn’t notice the Master’s TARDIS appearing.

The idea that you can see the universe on a scale where Nyssa would be able to make out the fact that Traken has just been wiped out is only slightly less insane than the fact the show destroys her entire planet and then just... doesn’t really mention it again. She’s remarkably cheerful again in the next scene.

Adric announcing himself as intelligent alien life is hilarious.

No incidental music over the Doctor climbing the telescope – just the sound of him on the ladder and slightly sinister bird noises.

The way the Master pretends it’s all over and the Doctor should go have a nice cup of tea with the authorities, just to screw with him before sending out his insane message, is really messed up. Ainley is definitely more sadistic than the Delgado version. “You’re utterly mad!” Yeah he is, what exactly is he expecting the peoples of the universe to do in response?

Which idiot designed a device that would very slowly rotate a walkway several hundred metres above ground for no obvious reason? The photo of the Master watching is a really weird cock up. [There’s a bit where they use a photograph instead of video footage, and on modern TVs it’s really, really obvious.]

After a fall from that height it’s weird there’s no visible damage. The Doctor addresses, “It’s the end – but the moment has been prepared for” to Adric specifically. Even though both Tegan and the Monitor now get higher billing than him.

Huh, even special end titles.

Anyway. That’s a mess. But it’s also bloody brilliant and I think features Tom’s best performance except possibly The Curator.