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Good heavens, it's the Master! Whoever would have guessed it?! Certainly not the Doctor, who has a splendid blind spot where his old sparring partner is concerned. Either the Master has taken the opportunity at some point to hypnotise him into being unable to see through his disguises, or the Doctor sees through them immediately, and plays along with the charade through sheer exasperation.
So the Master has keeled over and dribbled slime all over the place, for no reason really other than it looking good on camera. This accomplished, there is giggling and rubbing of hands, before he dashes off in pursuit of other things - mostly still intending to get into the spaceship that Nyssa and Tegan have already snuck into. The Doctor sets off on a similar mission, and leaves his merry little flight crew behind to do their own thing. Michael Cashman and the captain-bloke spy the Master going into the TARDIS, and sneak aboard to see if they can... not sure, really. Throw a spanner in his works, presumably. They switch some circuit boards about in a splendidly cavalier fashion, apparently not at all concerned about the fact that they're fiddling with the internal workings of a clearly alien spacecraft; then get caught at it by the Master. He actually seems quite pleased by it all, and doesn't kill them - I'm guessing because not even the Master would do anything that unpleasant to Michael Cashman. He leaves them in there and departs on other errands, and, clearly imbued with new confidence by their adventures, they attempt a flight. They don't actually do all that badly, to be fair to them. About as well as Tegan manages in "Four To Doomsday", at any rate. Meanwhile the third member of their crew just sort of skulks about a bit and doesn't do anything much until the end of episode four.
Whilst all this is going on, the Doctor has found Nyssa and Tegan, and met a race of ghostly beings called the Xeraphin. It's their spaceship, and they have powers that the Master wants. He's already tapped into them - it's this that enabled him to pretend to be a sorcerer earlier in the story, for reasons I'm still unclear about. Basically they've lost their bodies and would quite like them back please, and the Master would rather take advantage of their floaty state for his own nefarious ends. Etc, etc, etc. Professor Stiff-Upper-Lip-And-A-Beard, an unflappable sort who was a passenger on Concorde 1, attempts to bond with them for reasons I seem to have missed entirely, other than it being a great leap forward for his own scientific research, or something. It kills him to death, but allows him to nip off to the TARDIS anyway, and rescue Michael Cashman and the other bloke. And then the Doctor and the Master argue for a bit about TARDIS spare parts, before the Master buggers off, and the Doctor loads up all the various humans onto Concorde 2. Michael Cashman and co do something clever involving the compressed air from the tyres of Concorde 1 in order to kickstart the engine, although how they're planning on taking off on that terrain is anybody's guess. It's a wonder they landed without falling apart. I know Concorde's an incredible plane, but still...
Um... and that's about it, really. They Doctor throws in some line about having sent the Xeraphin back to their own world, where there's more chance that they can fix themselves, and also does something clever to make the Master's TARDIS spin off into the ether. Then they're back at Heathrow, and Tegan wanders off for absolutely no conceivable reason. Literally, no reason at all. It's bizarre. In a panic about airport security and the like, the Doctor runs away with Nyssa, leaving Tegan behind. Given that she's the only one of his companions who can be counted upon to have any useful dialogue or indeed any plot at all, this is unfortunate. Actually it isn't, as it provides a neat place for all those Five and Nyssa Big Finish stories to be slotted in, and they're jolly good. They didn't know that in 1982, though, I'm guessing.
And that's "Time-Flight", then. Zapped to the past, tussle with the Master, send some floaty things home, argue with a pair of policemen, leave Tegan behind. That really is it. It's a spectacularly pointless affair that could easily fit into one episode, let alone four. I remain stupidly fond of it, though. That sort of pointlessness should be celebrated. Plus it's got some lovely stock footage of Concorde in it. And Michael Cashman. And bubbles.
More pictures:
It's the Master! Gosh!
The TARDIS, looking rather nice in a cave.
I really have no idea, but it's quite pretty.
The lovely Michael Cashman and the captain-bloke making no attempt to look urgent aboard the TARDIS.
A floaty Xeraphin.
The TARDIS hovers uncertainly, courtesy of the captain-bloke.
The Doctor and co confront the Master, in a handily photogenic line.
And then look at something else, again in a convenient, and in no way unnatural, linear arrangement.
The world's least likely plane crew, in dynamic, action man pose.
Aeroplane porn.
The Doctor attempts to convince some policemen that he's not dangerous.
And is helped out by Michael Cashman and co. There is no giggling in this scene. None at all. Oh no.
The Doctor makes good his escape, leaving Tegan gadding about in the departure lounge.
Why would she run off for a quick look at Heathrow whilst the Doctor is tussling with the police? One minute she's chatting with Nyssa, the next she's half the airport away. Not that this unfathomable event isn't in keeping with the entirely unfathomable rest of the story, of course. There is quite literally nothing in "Time-Flight" that makes much sense at all. It doesn't really even have a point. It's just there, between "Earthshock" and "Arc Of Infinity", existing merely to give Anthony Ainley the chance to play dress up, and provide a nice lead in to a series of audio plays that wouldn't be written for another twenty years. Which, whilst it is appreciated, can't really be credited to the team behind its creation back in the early eighties. Not even if I'm being really, really generous.
Splendidly pointless, then, with no apparently logic, plot, or coherency. And yet, still light years ahead of "Last of the Time Lords", which is one thing in its favour. Sort of.
So the Master has keeled over and dribbled slime all over the place, for no reason really other than it looking good on camera. This accomplished, there is giggling and rubbing of hands, before he dashes off in pursuit of other things - mostly still intending to get into the spaceship that Nyssa and Tegan have already snuck into. The Doctor sets off on a similar mission, and leaves his merry little flight crew behind to do their own thing. Michael Cashman and the captain-bloke spy the Master going into the TARDIS, and sneak aboard to see if they can... not sure, really. Throw a spanner in his works, presumably. They switch some circuit boards about in a splendidly cavalier fashion, apparently not at all concerned about the fact that they're fiddling with the internal workings of a clearly alien spacecraft; then get caught at it by the Master. He actually seems quite pleased by it all, and doesn't kill them - I'm guessing because not even the Master would do anything that unpleasant to Michael Cashman. He leaves them in there and departs on other errands, and, clearly imbued with new confidence by their adventures, they attempt a flight. They don't actually do all that badly, to be fair to them. About as well as Tegan manages in "Four To Doomsday", at any rate. Meanwhile the third member of their crew just sort of skulks about a bit and doesn't do anything much until the end of episode four.
Whilst all this is going on, the Doctor has found Nyssa and Tegan, and met a race of ghostly beings called the Xeraphin. It's their spaceship, and they have powers that the Master wants. He's already tapped into them - it's this that enabled him to pretend to be a sorcerer earlier in the story, for reasons I'm still unclear about. Basically they've lost their bodies and would quite like them back please, and the Master would rather take advantage of their floaty state for his own nefarious ends. Etc, etc, etc. Professor Stiff-Upper-Lip-And-A-Beard, an unflappable sort who was a passenger on Concorde 1, attempts to bond with them for reasons I seem to have missed entirely, other than it being a great leap forward for his own scientific research, or something. It kills him to death, but allows him to nip off to the TARDIS anyway, and rescue Michael Cashman and the other bloke. And then the Doctor and the Master argue for a bit about TARDIS spare parts, before the Master buggers off, and the Doctor loads up all the various humans onto Concorde 2. Michael Cashman and co do something clever involving the compressed air from the tyres of Concorde 1 in order to kickstart the engine, although how they're planning on taking off on that terrain is anybody's guess. It's a wonder they landed without falling apart. I know Concorde's an incredible plane, but still...
Um... and that's about it, really. They Doctor throws in some line about having sent the Xeraphin back to their own world, where there's more chance that they can fix themselves, and also does something clever to make the Master's TARDIS spin off into the ether. Then they're back at Heathrow, and Tegan wanders off for absolutely no conceivable reason. Literally, no reason at all. It's bizarre. In a panic about airport security and the like, the Doctor runs away with Nyssa, leaving Tegan behind. Given that she's the only one of his companions who can be counted upon to have any useful dialogue or indeed any plot at all, this is unfortunate. Actually it isn't, as it provides a neat place for all those Five and Nyssa Big Finish stories to be slotted in, and they're jolly good. They didn't know that in 1982, though, I'm guessing.
And that's "Time-Flight", then. Zapped to the past, tussle with the Master, send some floaty things home, argue with a pair of policemen, leave Tegan behind. That really is it. It's a spectacularly pointless affair that could easily fit into one episode, let alone four. I remain stupidly fond of it, though. That sort of pointlessness should be celebrated. Plus it's got some lovely stock footage of Concorde in it. And Michael Cashman. And bubbles.
More pictures:
It's the Master! Gosh!
The TARDIS, looking rather nice in a cave.
I really have no idea, but it's quite pretty.
The lovely Michael Cashman and the captain-bloke making no attempt to look urgent aboard the TARDIS.
A floaty Xeraphin.
The TARDIS hovers uncertainly, courtesy of the captain-bloke.
The Doctor and co confront the Master, in a handily photogenic line.
And then look at something else, again in a convenient, and in no way unnatural, linear arrangement.
The world's least likely plane crew, in dynamic, action man pose.
Aeroplane porn.
The Doctor attempts to convince some policemen that he's not dangerous.
And is helped out by Michael Cashman and co. There is no giggling in this scene. None at all. Oh no.
The Doctor makes good his escape, leaving Tegan gadding about in the departure lounge.
Why would she run off for a quick look at Heathrow whilst the Doctor is tussling with the police? One minute she's chatting with Nyssa, the next she's half the airport away. Not that this unfathomable event isn't in keeping with the entirely unfathomable rest of the story, of course. There is quite literally nothing in "Time-Flight" that makes much sense at all. It doesn't really even have a point. It's just there, between "Earthshock" and "Arc Of Infinity", existing merely to give Anthony Ainley the chance to play dress up, and provide a nice lead in to a series of audio plays that wouldn't be written for another twenty years. Which, whilst it is appreciated, can't really be credited to the team behind its creation back in the early eighties. Not even if I'm being really, really generous.
Splendidly pointless, then, with no apparently logic, plot, or coherency. And yet, still light years ahead of "Last of the Time Lords", which is one thing in its favour. Sort of.
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