5.4: The Visitation

In which Eric Saward makes his debut, and sets London alight.

Broadcast: February 1982

Watched: November 2020

The Visitation, Part One

“A small error has been made.” We’re quite a long way into the season before Tegan throws her first wobbly about not making her flight. AND she immediately apologies. She’s much less whiny than I imagined.

Anyway. Enjoyed that. Wasn’t expecting much, always been a bit lukewarm on this one. Love the opening with a random 17th century family brought menaced by robots; for a moment later on the outfits and stuff about gunpowder hints that it it might be 1605, but the plague stuff quickly puts us right, and gives us an unusual but entirely logical reason for the locals to want to kill the regulars. Richard Mace is lots of fun.

(Oooh they put the two historicals back to back don’t they? That feels like a cock up.)

In answer to a question I posed last time, the Kinda are a tribe, as we learn from the fact the Doctor is still telling Adric off. “Poor old Adric, always in trouble.” “And I try so hard.” The Doctor’s inability to look at the boy as he reassures him that Tegan likes him is very funny.

There’s a clear effort to give each of the companions a bit with the Doctor, rather than penalty box-ing one of them for the duration of the story.

The Visitation, Part Two

“How are the dimensions greater within?” “Because it buried itself on impact,” feels like a nice joke.

I like the android dressed as death, and the magic energy barrier wall. The interrogation scene in which Adric and Tegan are answering sarcastically despite being utterly powerless is quite fun, too. The control bracelets are another example of mind control jewellery, which as noted previously is very popular in this era of Who.

But the Terrileptil costume is properly shit, and I’m getting bored already, and I’ve realised something: I find science fiction in historical settings oddly off-putting. I don’t feel the same about horror – it’s a genre I’m lukewarm on, but it doesn’t feel like a tonal mismatch. This is a very personal reaction, I know, but it means this story is never going to be a favourite.

The Doctor’s “Not again”, as he faces execution, is a funny cliffhanger.

The order of the companions’ credits rotate. Was this deliberate?

The Visitation, Part Three

“I feel like you’ve just killed an old friend.” “It is with some sadness that I tell you you are about to join it.” It is interesting that JNT wanted to destroy the sonic screwdriver because it made things too easy, whereas RTD brought it back because the things it made easy are generally the boring things.

Anyway. I’m quite bored. I think it’s me, more than the story, but I just don’t connect with this one. Mace is the best thing in it. I quite like that the Terileptils are portrayed as evil people who happen to be green, not monsters – they’re Silurians, not Daleks. But I just don’t find it in any way compelling. I like the Terileptil disguising itself by wearing a cloak though.

This week it’s Adric’s turn to have a breakdown about how fucking terrifying travelling with the Doctor is. The occasional glances towards psychological realism this season feel like something that could break the format if they’re not careful. The bit where he gets bored of waiting, decides to help, and *literally immediately* gets captured is funny, though I’m not sure it’s meant to be.

What is it with early JNT and the sudden fascination with companions’ bedrooms?

Oh, one good thing about episode 3 – it’s a great cliffhanger, with the Doctor begging the mind controlled Tegan not to open the box full of plague rats. Also, the Terileptil’s irritation at the Doctor trying to debate him. (“It’s not supposed to be an argument, it’s a statement!”)

The Visitation, Part Four

“I never miss” is probably Davison’s coolest moment as the Doctor thus far.

Anyway, this has “new inexperienced writer” written all over it. It’s not a terrible idea for a story, but it’s not really about anything, structurally it’s all capture/escape loops to create peril, and Nyssa spends half the story building a maguffin (which, to be fair, is quite satisfying when she uses it).

I did enjoy Adric escaping his captors because they see the android dressed as Death and shit themselves, though.

The fact Adric can fly the TARDIS has been under analysed, I think. How many companions can? Him, Romana, River... that’s it isn’t it? This period really does play with the idea of the TARDIS as a setting, not just a vehicle to get you to the story. I’m glad someone tried it but it does always feel weirdly like a breach of the Who equivalent of Aristotelian unities.

The Doctor’s grumpiness followed by Tegan’s “I’m pleased to see you, anyway” feels like a call back to the conversation in episode one about whether or not she liked Adric. Nyssa shows as much sadness for the robot she just destroyed because it was trying to kill her as she did for the entirety of her home planet..

The TARDIS using actual 17th century maps of London is pretty cool. So is the fact the Terileptils are colour coded, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The punchline is amusing: I quite like that you need some basic history to get it. The shots of the Terileptil burning to death are horrible.

The BritBox episode description begins with “Heading to London Town…”, btw.