Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12:Part 4- Strifes, Strikes and a Trial

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12 A twelve part series on the episodes, serials, and one Movie that surround the most iconic piece of Doctor Who Cannon, The Regeneration and what will be coming for Peter Capaldi

Part 4- Strifes, Strikes and a Trial

Caves of Androzoni was not an overwhelming episode.  It played off the ideas of Phantom of the Opera with the ultimate goal of eternal life.  Why do evil masterminds never get creative?  They are always searching for ultimate power or eternal life.  For a regeneration story, this lacks pizzazz.  The Doctor sacrifices himself to save Tegan.  The budget restraints of the BBC again show their ugly head.  The regeneration sequences seem unfinished.  In later interviews the Director and producers et all, indicated that there HAD been more planned with the SFX and filming more dialogue to be shot.  There was a strike or two to work around.  Not a good beginning for Colin Baker’s Doctor.  His first story was Twin Dilemma.  A sub par plot of a would be tyrant trying to take over the universe.  This Who episode has some of the worst Doctor Who cliches, including rubber masks, running down endless corridors over and over again, and 1980’s SFX.  There is a second Time Lord present and we don’t get much information about him of the Time Lords.  Also he dies without regenerating!  Colin Baker went on to have the worst time in the TARDIS.  The threat of cancellation was constantly over head, and several strikes ending up closing down BBC for significant periods of time.  This causes The Doctor to be put on Trial.  In the show it was the Time Lord high counsel but in reality it was BBC.

Coming Next Part 5

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12 Part 3-For whom the Bell Tolls

Regenerations #1-11 and What’s in Store for #12 A twelve part series on the episodes, serials, and one Movie that surround the most iconic piece of Doctor Who Cannon, The Regeneration and what will be coming for Peter Capaldi

Part three- For whom the Bell Tolls

When Tom Baker decided to leave I’m sure the BBC was in a lurch.  Would the show survive?  But this is what regenerations are made for!  In a three part series, The Keeper of Trakken/ Logopolis/ Castrovalia, Tom Baker left the show and Peter Davison took over the role of The Doctor.  Logopolis is a kind of messy episode, jumping all over the place.  This is the first time the Cloister Bell is heard, sounding alarm.  The Doctor decides to fix the chameleon circuit after who knows how many years it’s been broken.  Then the Master shows up.  Then we are on an alien planet to fix the TARDIS and the Master follows.  It seems like a script writer was given certain elements and told to make it work.  But it doesn't.  Then we have the Doctor crossing his own time stream.  Don’t cross the streams.  Then the Doctor has trouble with his regeneration.  What do his companions decide to do?  They play “Which Way” with the TARDIS, immediately falling into a trap set by the Master.  It is not till the end of Castrovalia that we get a idea of what the new Doctor is about.  This may have been done on purpose to place more time between Tom Baker and Peter Davidson.  When we do get the Doctor new clothes, it is an outfit of cricket clothes(that aren't really cricket clothes) and celery.  I’m sure at the time no one knew what to think.  Later producer said that this costuming was because of a newly growing American audience.  We also have a superfluity of companions.  No Doctor until David Tennant has ever had more “companion” in the TARDIS at once.  This overload of characters caused issues with plot development.  They were eventually written out to help concentrate on character development.