The Master is back, and bad as ever! Okay, he's a little angry that he's been marooned on Earth for no good reason, so his goal is to wreak as much havoc upon Earth as is Time Lordly possible.
The beginning seemed a bit Clockwork Orange-ish, except this was not R rated. The Keller machine is designed to extract the evil bits from hardened criminals, turning them into placid gentle members of society. Well yah, the effects turn them into catatonic drooling idiots, but that's okay. We shouldn't worry too much about little things like that. Well, the machine is actually evil, if you can imagine that. The machine discovers the person's worse fears, and they die from extreme terror when the machine subjects them to said fears.
There is a second side plot going on. Someone has stolen important documents from the Chinese at the World Peace Conference and then the Chinese delegate is found dead. This was a bit odd, because they don't normally have other races in Doctor Who. The Doctor can speak a Chinese dialect, which is very strange considering that he does not even know French. What's he been doing? Sitting around studying Hokkein while on Earth? I guess he would have a lot of time on his hands when he's not defeating the Master. Chin Lee is a bad girl, but it's okay because she's been mind controlled by the Master. I like when people are forgiven for them crimes when they've been mind controlled. Apparently he's trying to cause a world war, by assassinating important leaders. What the heck?
Meanwhile the criminals have taken over the citadel, where they and the Keller machine are. They don't want to be brainwashed, and I can't blame them for that. I remarked upon the appearance of the criminals, which my expert viewer found strange. They were all neat and tidy in suits and ties. They must not have invented the orange jumper yet.
The Keller machine is too strong even for the Doctor and the Master, who is a master at mind control. We get to see the Doctor's worse fears, which include the Cybermen, the Daleks, the War Machine [I thought Harnell really liked these things], a Silurian, a Sensorite, a Zarbi [Oh heck, that would be my worse fear, too] and others that I didn't recognize. Why was he afraid of the Silurians? Weren't they his friends? The Keller machine grows in strength, and begins teleporting through the prison, wiping out minds at will. You can tell it's having a freaking good time.
The Brigadier and his troops run into the citadel, and take back the prison. But they too run into a problem when the Keller starts knocking them off the board. The Doctor discovers that the machine goes dormant when one of the criminal idiots sits by it. So, they take the machine with the idiot Barnham and use it against the Master, so they can detonate the Thunderbolt before the Master uses it for his evil purposes. Unfortunately, the Master escapes Earth because he has taken back his dematerialization circuit, much to the chagrin of the Doctor. But is the Master gone forever? Of course, the Master calls the Doctor on the telephone, just to rub it in. They're so mean to each other.
Erm, why was the Brigadier sleeping at his desk? Doesn't he have a home?
They didn't do much with the World Peace Conference plot after the 4th chapter. It just sort of evaporated into space.
Next Up: The Claws of Axos
No comments:
Post a Comment