Episode #134 : Planet of Fire

"I'm Perpugilliam Brown, and I can shout just as loud as you can!"

Episode 134:    Planet of Fire.
Companions:   5th Doctor, Peri and Turlough.
Air Date:          23rd February to 2nd March 1984.

On holiday in Lanzarote, a young American girl named Peri narrowly escapes drowning when she is rescued from the sea by Turlough and taken into the TARDIS to recover. The Doctor is on the island because the TARDIS has detected a mysterious signal being transmitted from an unknown artifact retrieved from the sea bed by Peri's stepfather, Howard Foster. The Master reasserts his control over Kamelion and gets it to bring the TARDIS, along with the Doctor, Turlough and Peri, to the planet Sarn, where he is hoping to use that world's supply of revitalising numismaton gas to restore his body - accidentally shrunken in an experiment with his tissue compression eliminator weapon - to its correct size.

By this point I am now fairly sick to death of the Master. He was over used during the Jon Pertwee era and since his return he has appeared far too often. I don't suppose you really notice when watching the show of the television but watching the stories in a quick succession he does seem to appear a little too often. Ainley is still just as good as the Master but once again I wish they would give him some better schemes that can't be so easily thwarted by the Doctor. At least this story has a fun twist where the Master is concerned.

Planet of Fire sees the death of Kamelion and the departure of Turlough. Kamelion was a poor choice for a companion and he wasn't able to appear more than twice so killing him off wasn't a bad idea. Turlough on the other hand I am going to miss. His character has matured and grown since he first joined the TARDIS crew as an agent of the Black Guardian. His story ends on a high note with him being able to return to his people on Trion a hero.

Instead we are joined by Peri "Perpugilliam" Brown an English actress playing an American student with a bad American accent.I never knew what to make of the character when I was ten and I still don't. In this introductory story she is just a whiney American teenager who just seems to have an attitude problem and the ability to get herself into all sorts of trouble.

There is a lot of character development in this story but not enough to the story. It is comes across as a tale about religious persecution and how alien visitors can be misinterpreted as gods. By itself this could have been an excellent "reading between the lines" sort of story but it is overshadowed by the Master chewing the scenary and the character interactions between our three time travellers. Planet of Fire is another story that isn't bad but could have been a lot better.

Episode #128 : The King's Demons

"Do our demons come to visit us?"

Episode 128:   The King's Demons.
Companions:   5th Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough.
Air Date:         15th to 16th March 1983.

The TARDIS materialises in 13th Century England during a joust held in the presence of King John. The King welcomes the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough as his 'demons', but his actions toward the family of his host Ranulf fitz William are decidedly hostile. The Doctor discovers that what appears to be the King is in fact a shape-changing android called Kamelion whom the Master found on Xeriphas. The Master has disguised himself as the King's Champion, Sir Gilles Estram, and is using Kamelion in a plot to discredit the King and prevent the signing of the Magna Carta, thereby changing the course of history.

The King's Demons is a nice short story played out well and gives the 5th Doctor the opportunity to refresh his sword fighting skills. A casual viewer may not notice the details but there are some plot holes in the telling. The most obvious and perhaps important one is the question why the Master wants to mess with something like the signing of the Magna Carta? As the Doctor points out this is small fry compared to what he is used to doing. Then at the end the Master simply runs off and escapes not even bothering to try and finish what he started. The second problem is more obvious. The Master is disguised as a French knight in service to the king, but he looks just like the Master with a beard. It's obvious that it is him and yet the Doctor and Tegan don't recognise their old enemy till the end of the first part.

At the culmination of the story Kamelion joins the time travellers but only ever makes one more appearance. Why he was included seems a bit odd but the reason for his disappearance is that the use of the robot prop was impractical and often malfunctioned.

This episode while entertaining is really just a filler episode to round out the current series. However it does lead directly into the next story which is far far superior.