5.2: Four to Doomsday

In which Doctor Who inspires Chris Chibnall’s long-standing interest in frogs.

Broadcast: January 1982 

Watched: November 2020

Four to Doomsday, Part One

“I suppose it could be part of the Piccadilly line.”

Slow start, frankly. I like how the appearance of the Urbankans is held back for the first half of the episode, but it does mean lots of poking around in a cargo hold, and that things don’t start getting interesting until quite near the end of the runtime.

Tegan seems weirdly keen to get to her flight, considering her recently murdered aunt. Also how many aboriginal languages are there? What are the odds she’d know the right one? (Also, she’s from Queensland, Australia’s Deep North; the odds are she’d be a massive racist.)

Adric is truly punchable in this one. Being a sexist little prick and then getting all snotty when the Doctor leaves him behind with Nyssa. The memory doesn’t cheat, he’s suddenly written as vastly more irritating than he’s ever been before.

Four to Doomsday, Part Two

This is an odd sort of story isn’t it? No action except the “recreationals”, all the peril deferred. It’s a sort of “Doctor Who as tourism” thing, with the plot driven by exploration rather than action. Reminds me of something like The Rings of Akhaten. Also, Monarch is sinister but not immediately threatening. It’s interesting, but feels like quite a brave start to a new era, especially considering Castrovalva wasn’t exactly action packed.

Tegan’s panic about where the hell she finds herself is actually quite sympathetic – she’s not whining for the sake of it, she’s bloody terrified. And how is Nyssa an expert in anything? She’s 12. For the second story running a middle aged man physically shoves her, btw.

The Doctor’s ancient history is all wrong, the Mayans were not 8,000 years ago.

I quite like Bigon’s “Pretend I’m explaining the fight and cause a distraction” bit. The image that ends the episode – another standard Doctor Who android, by the way, of the sort previously seen in Android Invasion and Androids of Tara – is weirdly traumatic, considering that if you hadn’t worked out they’re all robots by the end you’re a moron.

Something that hadn’t really occurred to me before – they’re really not very action-y, this lot, are they? Obviously some Davisons are incredibly action-y (Earthshock, Resurrection). But a lot of the stories just don’t foreground that at all, whereas it’s a standard bit of the toolkit for much of the series.

Four to Doomsday, Part Three

Okay, this one picks up the pace as it goes on. It might sort of be an inverse of something like Planet of the Daleks – one that works better when watched as a TV movie than as four episodes.

Monarch is a fairly unusual sort of megalomaniac. Not so much in his belief that he’s literally god, as in his inability to travel faster than light which every sod can do in Doctor Who. Also, in his brazen discussion of the need for a class system and the fact he lists the child-friendly “chicken pox” as one of the great scourges of the “flesh time”.

I like the attempt at diversity, and not being Eurocentric in its approach to history... though it’s slightly undermined by the Greek guy being a (frankly not very well-acted) hero, the Aborigine an idiot and the Chinese one being a traitorous dog.

Adric’s IQ has collapsed between seasons and he’s turned into a right little prick, no one wonder everyone hated him. Tegan assaults him and leaves him unconscious at one point, though, which is kind of cool. Also poor Tegan, she’s having exactly the sort of breakdown a lot of us would if we found ourselves in a situation like this.

Nyssa has remembered that her father is dead. Seems to have forgotten the destruction of her planet, though.

Chris Chibnall must be a huge fan of this one, given his obsession with frogs. The frog boxset would contain Four to Doomsday, The Tsuranga Conundrum and It Takes You Away.

Four to Doomsday, Part Four

“I took five wickets once for New South Wales.” Is there a conscious attempt to develop the Aussie audience in the early 80s?

Having whined about the pace, I should say that the ideas in this one are very great, I can totally see how the mix of ideas would have blown your mind if you saw it at the right age. Ditto the space walk sequence (the cricket ball, and so forth). The fact Adric and the Doctor casually dispose of Persuasion and Enlightenment feels a bit under-discussed. Mind you, he then gets rid of Monarch by literally chucking poison at him, so.

Adric’s betrayal is almost made good by his willingness to die to protect the Doctor… except he’s then sucking up to Monarch again the little twat. Monarch continues to be far more subtle than the average Doctor Who villain, sparing the Doctor’s life to win Adric’s loyalty.

The way the Doctor uses this to con Monarch into thinking he’s changed his tune feels like a character note. The last two Doctors would have just told Adric he was a twat oooh wait he’s doing it now never mind. After this it’s a miracle he ever trusts the kid again, let alone so quickly. Mind you, Lin Futu changes sides incredibly easily as well, so maybe that’s just kids TV shorthand.

The TARDIS continues to be getting rather better at these short hops. The Doctor and Adric nick a bunch of spacesuit bits.

Weird how the only Mayans are women, and the only women are Mayans. While googling [guest actor] Burt Kwouk, by the way, I learned that he ended up as a regular in Last of the Summer Wine who came from the place of “ancient eastern wisdom”: Hull. 

Oooh, a cliffhanger. Will Nyssa survive, or will she have to stay in bed for the whole of the next story? Stay tuned!