Doctor Who - Timelash [DVD]

As a self-confessed Doctor Who fan for the past twenty five years I am duty bound to be as positive as possible about any story from the programme's long history. Therefore I will not begin this review by carping about production values - it is a well-documented fact that during the mid-1980s Doctor Who received little support from the BBC and by the time this story was produced it was considered to be tired and irrelevant show that needed to be consigned to history - but will instead focus on the positives whilst remaining objective; surely the whole point of this review system.
Accompanied by Peri and a young HG Wells, the Doctor returns to the planet Karfelon, which is now secretly being ruled by the Borad; a scientist horribly mutated into a cross between a human being and a Morlox (the planet's reptilian inhabitants). The Borad intends to provoke a war with Karfelon's neighbours, the Bandrils. In the wake of the conflict, he will start a new race on Karfelon - a race of mutants like himself, of which The Doctor's companion Peri will be the first.
At the time it was made, the Script Editor (Eric Saward) seemed to be aiming to combine political comment with knockabout humour; a combination that tried the patience of most viewers. On top of this the writer, Glen McCoy, was a TV novice and this led to extensive re-writing of the scripts; the resultant 'disjointed' feel to many parts of the story obviously only served to highlight its limitations.
The story is also guilty of being a little too self-referential, something that would never happen nowadays. The third Doctor is referred to as having visited the planet sometime ago (or after!) and a somewhat bizzare portrait of him is unearthed in episode two.
Overall this is clearly not a classic slice of 'Who' but is nonetheless an enjoyable romp with madcap villains, stilted robots, wobbly sets and over-the-top performances. What more could you want?

When the booklet that accompanies the DVD claims "Timelash isn't that bad!" you know you're in trouble. When the making of extra merely reels off a list of reasons for why the story was rubbish, rather than discussing the actual making of the serial, you can't be too hopeful.

However Timelash is much better than its reputation would suggest. The story is pretty simplistic but decent enough. The acting isn't too bad except for Tekker, but I don't feel I really need to comment on that. There are some scenes which are so clearly placed for padding, principally the doctors argument with Perri at the end, which serves no other purpose whatsoever. The blue android thing was squeaky and so pretty ineffective as a menacing villain. The design in the serial was also poor, the interior of the Timelash was effective only for its comedy value. The fact that the terrifying Timelash could easily be climbed into ruined the premise f its use as punishment. Also the poor positioning of the prop meant that people had to throw themselves into the Timelash rather than being thrown into it. Colin Baker was only the Doctor for two full seasons and with such a high percentage of his stories falling short of the mark you can see why he was unpopular with the BBC bigwigs, however Baker is a good actor and could have been an excellent doctor, his performance here (excepting the cringeworthy TARDIS scenes) is a highlight, the design of The Borad is also good.

Another massive problem is the glaring plot holes displayed at the end. The explanation of the Borads escape is improbbable and unsatisfactory, and the fact that the doctor decides not to explain how he prevented the bomb shows weakness in the writing.

I have to say although I have managed to reel off a long list of faults with the serial I did enjoy it when I watched it. I have given it a low rating because it is hard to give it more when so many superior stories exist. However it is a budget release and I wouldn't warn people off picking it up for a cheap price. But with Genesis of the Daleks, Earthshock, Spearhead from Space, The Hand of Fear and other classic serials being released for bargain prices maybe you should shy away from this one.

Contains spoilers. Sometimes I feel that, when watching certain Doctor Who, notions of bad and good become more complex. Is this good? Is it so bad it's good? Is it just bad? These are questions I find difficult to answer regarding Timelash. I must be honest, I enjoyed it much more than I expected. It's certainly much, much better than the dreadful "Twin Dilemma". Yes, it's ludicrous, but the ludicrousness is entertaining, particularly Paul Darrow, and the ridiculous tinsel climbing frame thing that is supposed to be the inside of the Timelash. Also, the bit where Peri goes away "to be by herself for a bit" and then ends up in the grip of the Borad clone-thingy genuinely surprised and shocked me (sort of). The worst bits are the second main batch of TARDIS bickering between the Doctor and Peri - totally pointless and just annoying, and the slightly dodgy plot - how did the Doctor survive in part two? That isn't adequately explained, nor is the cloning of the Borad. Yes it's pretty rubbish of course, but I was thoroughly entertained for most of it.