Wednesday, August 29, 2018

The Ambassadors of Death

The Doctor might be stuck working for UNIT but he's not exactly a kept man. When we first see him in The Ambassadors of Death he's trying to repair the TARDIS. Exile be damned, a rambler's gotta ramble. It's only after the Doctor sees an astronaut recovery mission go awry on TV that he decides to go out of his way to help the Brigadier. In fact, in a lovely little scene that seems to be typical of the Third Doctor, he forces his way into the highly secure Space Centre without any ID before the Brigadier even thinks to call him for assistance. What follows is an elaborate plot full of double crosses, murder, missing astronauts, missing aliens, robbery, space travel, anti-authoritarianism, shoot outs, kidnapping and just a hint of Watchmen. While the serial's ending is fairly abrupt (the Doctor declares the situation resolved and literally walks away) the rest of the episodes move at a great pace that keeps everything from getting too bogged down.

Rating: Thank you%