The Creature from the Pit

After Romana reinstalls an emergency transceiver that the Doctor had deemed 'a bore,' the TARDIS makes an abrupt landing on the planet Chloris. The Doctor quickly takes interest in an enormous metallic eggshell lying in the middle of a dense jungle. Before he can reach any conclusions about the eggshell, the Doctor and Romana are arrested by the local authority and sentenced to death. Their lives are temporarily spared by the Lady Adrasta, who takes an interest in the Doctor's theories about the mysterious metallic eggshell. But the Lady Adrasta's benevolence is only out of self-interest as the Doctor and Romana soon learn that there's a terrible secret on Chloris and it's at the bottom of a deep, dark pit. There might be a lot to like about The Creature from the Pit but it's far from perfect. It definitely could have been a better serial if it weren't for two major flaws. First, the story really runs out of steam in the last episode. And second, the titular creature looks terrible. It's supposed to be an impressively large, amorphous green blob but the end result looks more like an inflatable Halloween costume with laughably phallic limbs.

Rating: He's only a little dog, you know%

The Pirate Planet

The Doctor and Romana trace the second segment of the Key to Time to the cold, uninhabited planet Calufrax. Only, when they arrive, they find that the TARDIS has actually materialized on the planet Zanak. Zanak, a populated world teeming with advanced technology and an overabundance of precious gems, appears to be lorded over by the tyrannical and partially mechanical Captain. But Zanak also holds a dark secret and only by teaming up with the Mentiads, a mysterious group with psychic powers, will the Doctor and his companions be able to uncover the mystery of Zanak and find the next piece of the Key to Time. The Pirate Planet is probably most famous for being the first contribution to Doctor Who by Douglas Adams. Adams would go on to write two more stories for Doctor Who as well as being the script supervisor for the show's following season. There is some overlap, both in concepts and characters, between Adams' work on Doctor Who and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is hardly surprising given that he was working on both around the same time.

Rating: Don't panic%

The Robots of Death

The TARDIS deposits Leela and the Doctor deep into the bowels of a mining ship on a barren desert planet. Soon after their arrival, members of the ship's crew start to turn up dead. The Doctor and Leela are immediately suspected of the murders but we, the audience, know that a robot is the real killer. But how can that be? Robots are programmed to be incapable of harming humans. Could it be that someone has reprogrammed the robots? Will anyone survive these automated assassins? The Robots of Death is a great serial. It marries classic sci-fi tropes with Agatha Christie-style plotting. Imagine And Then There Were None on a spaceship. The robots look great and the mining ship's miniature is also very well done. Leela is definitely coming into her own as a companion even though the Doctor remains rather cold with her.

Rating: Bumblebees%

The Monster of Peladon

The Doctor brings Sarah to Peladon, eager to find out how things have been on the planet since his last visit. Unfortunately, the TARDIS overshoots the mark, arriving some fifty years after the Doctor intended. Peladon is once again in turmoil. A civil war threatens to break out and the deadly specter of Aggedor looms over everyone. If The Monster of Peladon is remembered for anything, it has to be for its terrible wigs. The previous Peladon serial, The Curse of Peladon, established that the people of Peladon have weird two-tone hair. The costume department really leaned into that choice in Monster of Peladon and they gave the miners bizarre badger-like afros. They are rather ridiculous. Also, the Doctor seemingly dies several times during this serial. Possibly to soften the blow for what's about to come around the corner. 

Rating: I've always been very keen on survival%

Death to the Daleks

All tuckered out after the Invasion of the Dinosaurs, the Doctor proposes a beach holiday on Florana. While en route, the TARDIS experiences a catastrophic power failure and crash lands on the planet Exxilon. Something on the planet seems to be draining the electrical energy from anything that gets too close. The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith join forces with the crew of a marooned Earth vessel and a group of Daleks to find a way off the planet. The Doctor knows he can't trust the Daleks, but he and his companion are practically helpless against Exxilon's hostile natives. Does a mysterious, technologically advanced city hold the key to escaping Exxilon? Of course it does, why else would I bring it up? There isn't much to say about this serial. It's not bad, but there really isn't much to it. Also, you could take the Daleks out entirely and it wouldn't make a lot of difference.

Rating: It's a silly question%

The Green Death

The Green Death begins with our happy UNIT family all moving in different directions. Jo is consumed with the environmental work of Professor Jones. The Brigadier is investigating the mysterious deaths of some coal miners in Wales. And the Doctor wants nothing more than to take the TARDIS on an expedition to Metebelis Three. But, this being a television show, it's no surprise that all of their individual pursuits eventually coalesce. The Green Death is a top tier Third Doctor serial, in my opinion. It hits all the marks of the Pertwee era. There's cheesy special effects, fisticuffs, explosions, and some low key silliness. It also has one of the greatest endings of any Doctor Who serial so far, with the Doctor bidding a bittersweet farewell to his companion Jo Grant.

Rating: I'm quite spry for my age, actually%

Colony in Space

It was a bold idea to exile the Doctor to Earth, it could have easily ended the series. Instead, audiences embraced the changes and the show flourished. However, it wasn't long before Doctor Who's writers and producers realized that the Doctor's exile left them with a much smaller range of story lines to pick from. For what is the Doctor without the TARDIS? And so, for Jon Pertwee's eighth adventure we got the serial Colony in Space. It was the first serial from the Third Doctor era that felt like it could have easily slotted into the show's black and white years. In the story, the Time Lords covertly send the Doctor and Jo to a dusty little planet seemingly to help settle a dispute between some struggling colonists and an intergalactic mining concern. Around the half way point, the Master shows up, further complicating matters as he is wont to do. And then there's also the matter of the telepathic "primitives" and their doomsday weapon. Watching Colony in Space I was reminded of the Second Doctor serial The Space Pirates, except for the fact that Colony made for a much more entertaining story.

Rating: I'm every kind of scientist%

Inferno

Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Ambassadors of Death and Inferno are all very similar stories. I'd hesitate to call them "base under siege" stories but they're very much "base under siege" adjacent. In each story, the Doctor finds himself at a government facility where something hinky is going on. There are still monsters to be fought but, often, the biggest fight is with the pompous blowhard bureaucrat who's running the facility. In Inferno, it's a mining facility being run by the arrogant Professor Stahlman. The twist on the story, which certainly helps elevate it, is that the Doctor ends up being transported to a parallel world where he gets to witness what happens when the Professor's project reaches its conclusion. Also, it's a fascist parallel world. And there are hunchback werewolf zombies running around. It's a lot of fun.

Rating: I can see why you grew that moustache%

The Space Pirates

I wasn't looking forward to watching The Space Pirates. Despite knowing that it would be the last time I would have to sit through some grey market episode reconstructions, which I have done many times already, I was dreading getting started on this serial. Now, having seen it, I'd have to say that my fears were warranted. The Space Pirates isn't a particularly good serial, even if it did stray from the typical "base under siege" story format. I had issues with the costumes, the production designs and the acting, especially after just having seen The Seeds of Death. But perhaps the biggest factor working against The Space Pirates is how inconsequential it makes the Doctor and his companions. The story seems to unfold all around our heroes without them ever playing much of an active role. Other than an escape plan that the Doctor hatches using some marbles, candle wax and a pile of flaming rags, the bulk of the story just kind of pushes him along from A to B.

Rating: Zoe, don't be such a pessimist%