Humans are so parochial....and sometimes... so are stories.

The Doctor arrives at Heathrow Airport, only it's a few centuries too early, have the TARDIS and crew materializing just as the Plague is ravaging England. As the mystery unfolds, we learn that stranded reptilian-aliens, who are also escaped convicts, are accelerating the Plague in a typical half-baked fashion. As the newly regenerated 5th Doctor, played here by young Peter Davison, joins forces with Richard Mace, an actor turned highwayman. Keeping in the classic mold of the series, there is lots of running, capture, escape and escaping again, but very little story to tie up the historical elements.

Significant story points: THE DEATH of the SONIC SCREWDRIVER
(don't worry kids, it'll be back, check out the new season one DVDs in July)

With so many companions in the TARDIS a common flaw with the first Davison season is trying to find something for everyone to do, this is partly why Nyssa ends up in the TARDIS on a superfluous tech detail. Inspite of this I am still disappointed when Michael Robbins's Richard Mace remains behind, rather than add another mouth the feed (in the dialogue sense). The costumes are awkward, but performances bridge the gap. Locations are ok here and Peter Davison is so charming on screen that this below average concept becomes a very watchable piece of Dr. Who history. Unfortunately, Davison is less charismatic on the DVD commentary, filled with pauses and no real revelations, making for a is a less than interesting extra.

One of the most average historical period D.W.'s ever.

If someone were to ask you to show them not the very best historical Doctor Who and also not the worst historical Doctor Who but the most average you could think of I'd recommend showing them this one. In fact it's not just average for historical Doctor Who is average for any type of Doctor Who story.

Not that average is bad mind you it's just that with with so few Peter Davison era Doctor Who episodes avalible on DVD I wonder why they picked this one. So far all the episodes on DVD of the Davison era have been important episodes. For example Earthshock with the Cybermen and death of Adric or Caves of Androzani not only featuring Davison's finial apearence but also one of the best written, best acted,best written episodes ever.But who knows maybe that was the point to show something average.

The plot the Tardis lands on Earth in 1666 during the plague. There are aliens trapped on Earth they decide to wipe out all humanity so all three of them can have Earth to themselves. The Doctor offers to help them go some place else but they reject his offer.The doctor must stop the aliens evil plan to wipe out humanity with a geneticaly altered plague virus before it's too late! We've seen this sort of thing before in fact it remined me a bit of the Time Warrior from the Pertwee era but it's not as good. If this story suffers from something it's from being too simple and the writter of the episode Eric Saward agrees that it is a simple story in an excellent interview on the DVD extras.

Now on to the extras and on that score the disk gets a 5 star rating the stand out features are.A funny and very informative audio comentary track with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Matthew Waterhouse and director Peter Moffat. An interview with Peter Moffat about directing Doctor Who over the years. A interview with the episode writer Eric Saward. As well as an interview with the episodes composer. Honestly I really don't feel you can ask for much more BBC really went to town on this disk and I only mentioned some of what I think are the more interesting features. The episode may be average but the extras are far above average even by the high standards the BBC has set with other D.W. disks.

In conclusion this is a solid if not truely great episode. It's a good time but just not the best of the Davison era it is in a word average.

Fifth Doctor In The 17th Century

I never have been a huge fan of Doctor Who episodes set in the Middle Ages on up to the pre-industrial era. This episode does have all the typical characteristics of an average to good Doctor Who story at least on paper. However, the weakness of the 17th century setting dampens a lot of that. The same story set in a different era might have been more exciting. The background characters from that historical period are bland by nature and hard to bring to life by even an exceptional actor. It is also interesting that the writers went to all the trouble of pointing out that we are in the era of the black death plague, but we never are really shown any of the suffering caused by the plague. The best thing that comes out of the story being set in this time period is the Doctor starting the Great Fire Of London of 1666.

The Terileptils are great! The fact that they are escaped convicts and that they are developing an augmented form of black death plague virus that will wipe out all human life on Earth so that they can have the whole planet to themselves is classic Who and it is great!

In summary I would say that this Doctor Who story is adequate for the devoted fan with great aliens and great genocide themes. However, I would not describe the story as a must-see for the novice. This is average Doctor Who fare.