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| And UNIT knew never to shave the Brigadier in his sleep again... |
PLOT
In the midst of a dangerous drilling operation, the Doctor's latest experiment with the TARDIS console sends him "sideways" into time, into an alternate reality where the United Kingdom is replaced by a fascist Republic and everyone the Doctor knows are callous, evil versions of themselves.
Well, actually, that's a bit misleading. One of the more fascinating aspects of the "mirror universe" is that the characters seem to be adapted to the evil, not actually evil themselves. The Brigade Leader is brutal and self-centred, sure, but he's more defined by his loyalty to the regime than anything else. The guest stars are practically the same in both worlds and Liz is also careful, but potentially good and does ultimately redeem herself.
The only exception is Benton, who might as well have twirled a moustache.
What really didn't help the story were the monsters though, whose presence(which happens to be a major drive of the story) is never explained.
CHARACTERS
I like that the Doctor's utmost desire to escape his exile has remained a prominent character trait. It keeps the TARDIS relevant(although we haven't seen the blue box in a while. I presume something happened to the console room set) and makes for some pretty cool storylines as we obviously see here.
Nicholas Courtney is great as the Brigade Leader, as he doesn't have the cool that the normal one would have. His nervous breakdown at the end was brilliantly acted. But the Doctor's right though - that moustache was made for his face.
Stahlman is obviously the best "insane base commander" we've had yet. The way he kept ignoring any reason from anyone whatsoever was just awesome. What an admirable nut. He reminds me of my dad. A lot.
Greg and Petra were an odd, but compelling couple, especially in the parallel universe. Greg was quite memorable - the way he went from comic relief to a dead serious man was very well written and acted.
I thought Sir Keith was perhaps a little too lightweight, but he was fine too.
The best of all, though, was Caroline John in a very captivating performance as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw. You could just see the glimmer of compassion in her eyes. It's such a shame her time on Doctor Who was so short, since the rapport between her, Courtney and Pertwee was a big reason for why this season worked.
NOTES
*They really should've used the earlier sequence for the actual crossover to the other universe, instead of that ridiculous disco ball.
*Why doesn't Sir Keith have any authority in the last episode? Not only did the minister give express orders for the drill's shutdown until further notice(or so I thought), but isn't there some kind of a rule for when your boss is as nuts as Stahlman was?
*The Doctor has just returned from the parallel dimension. Instead of carefully explaining how to avoid the coming catastrophe, he idiotically destroys his credibility by smashing up consoles and screaming about doomsday.
*After arriving in the alternate universe, why does the Doctor just leave the TARDIS console there unprotected instead of using that very handy Time Vector Generator trick?
*How did Bessie follow the Doctor to the other dimension instead of the much closer bookshelves? And how did it escape, seeing as it was outside the workshop when the Doctor fled? I guess he might've brought it inside between episodes, but it still doesn't answer the first question.
*Why doesn't the Doctor try again after ending up on that rubbish tip in the last episode? I mean, doesn't he at least know how to get into parallel worlds? I mean, it's a start.
*And how does he even know that? Didn't the Time Lords say: "The secret of the TARDIS will be taken from you."? They're still acting like it's just a technical issue.
*Seriously, what was that green ooze?
BEST QUOTE
"One of the Doctor's inventions. He used to call it 'the door handle'."
CONCLUSION
A fun, imaginative story that goes on for a bit too long and doesn't have that much thematic substance to it.
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