TV #12 of 2024:
Classic Doctor Who, season 11
A true end of an era for this show, but unfortunately not one that finds it at its best. The current star Jon Pertwee makes his exit here, of course, but behind the scenes, the influential producer Barry Letts and his script editor Terrance Dicks (who had both been there for the Third Doctor’s whole tenure, which constituted a major reboot from the old black-and-white days) were also in the process of stepping down. Pertwee specifically was reportedly devastated by the recent death of actor Roger Delgado, who had played his character’s arch-nemesis the Master, and it’s hard to avoid wondering how that might have affected his performance in these final episodes. Even with a bright new costar in the form of Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith, the hero feels somewhat listless throughout this year. And although she’s pretty great herself, well, there’s a reason she’s primarily remembered as a Fourth Doctor companion instead.
This run also introduces the Sontarans, who would go on to be a popular recurring alien species for the franchise, and it offers a rare quasi-sequel when the Doctor and Sarah Jane visit the setting of Peladon from back in season 9. But its stories are rather convoluted — a certain betrayal among the UNIT staff comes entirely out of nowhere — and the effects for the dinosaurs and spiders are each distractingly bad even by this program’s typical low-budget standards. Luckily Tom Baker arrives in the closing moments, to shake things up in the precise nick of time.
Serials ranked from worst to best:
★★☆☆☆
DEATH TO THE DALEKS (11×11 – 11×14)
★★★☆☆
INVASION OF THE DINOSAURS (11×5 – 11×10)
PLANET OF THE SPIDERS (11×21 – 11×26)
THE MONSTER OF PELADON 11×15 – 11×20)
★★★★☆
THE TIME WARRIOR (11×1 – 11×4)
Overall rating for the season: ★★★☆☆
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