Episode #149 : Delta and the Bannermen

"You are not the Happy Hearts Holiday Club from Bolton, but instead are spacemen in fear of an attack from some other spacemen?"

Episode 149:    Delta and the Bannermen.
Companions:   7th Doctor and Mel.
Air Date:          2nd to 16th November 1987.

A Chimeron queen called Delta, the last surviving member of her race, is being pursued by the evil Gavrok and his Bannermen, intent on a mission of genocide. Delta finds herself on board a space bus of tourists en route to Earth when it is knocked off course by an American satellite and ends up at a Welsh holiday camp in 1959. The Doctor and Mel, having won a holiday with the tourists, help Delta to evade the rampaging Bannermen long enough to allow her child to hatch from its egg and grow to maturity. She, her daughter and a young man named Billy - who sacrifices his humanity to be with her - then escape to start a new life and ensure the continuation of the Chimeron race.

Delta and the Bannermen is a story that I really want to dislike but for all the wrong reasons. Those reasons once again are down to the costumes and appearance of the show. The adventure is set in the late 1950's so why do the costumes look so forced almost as if they are what we expect the clothing of the 50's to look like. That is me being picky and I know it but that doesn't change anything. The costumes for the Bannermen are just cheap and tacky. I can't take them seriously dressed like that.

The premise of the story is that the Chimeron race have been destroyed bar one queen, by a paramilitary group calling themselves Bannermen. No reason is given nor asked for, to explain why they want to see the Chimeron destroyed. A simple explanation somewhere would help make the story make sense. As it is I am left feeling somewhat irked because it isn't explained.

We have yet another celebrity appearance in this story, comedian Ken Dodd. Watch his stage shows and stand up routines and he is funny. However is appearance here is reminiscent of how Richard Briars in Paradise Towers, and you wonder why someone thought he would be a good addition.

I really don't want to like this story for things that just irk me but I can;t do that this time. Other elements such as the Doctor's growing persona and that it comes in three short episodes make it watchable. As such I am rating it average because I think other viewers won't be as stuck on the above issues as I am.