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Okay, that was... odd. Colourful. Definitely colourful. And also completely bonkers. Mad dreams, daft acronyms, fabulously dramatic dialogue. And Terry Walsh up a ladder. Hooray! Terry Walsh! No, don't worry. I don't get as excited about Terry as I do about Tip. I won't be declaring that the best bit of the episode or anything. But still - Terry Walsh! Up a ladder! And the Master. I've only watched the first two episodes so far, but based on that this might be Roger Delgado's best performance in the series to date. In the midst of all the bonkersness, he's being fabulous. Charismatic to cold in the blink of an eye; charming one minute, ruthless the next. I love the way that he completely fails to pay any attention to the window cleaner sprawled on the road. It just doesn't register on his radar at all.
We open with a dream sequence. The Doctor sees himself sprawled on a chaise longue, with giant axes standing nearby, and the Master mocking him. He wakes up convinced that something terrible is going to happen, which for some reason leads to Jo and Mike studying maps. Jo chats on about possible locations for Atlantis, which the Doctor has suddenly got a bee in his bonnet about, whilst Mike stands about being as posh and as gay as it's possible to be without turning into Stephen Fry. The Doctor decides that he has to warn the Brigadier about an unknown threat that's probably looming, but the Brig is less than impressed to discover that the Doctor got this warning from a dream. It was a good dream, though, Brig. With explosions and stuff in it. The Brig has other things on his mind, however, as he's been invited to a demonstration of TOMTIT, which as every good Who fan knows, stands for Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time. Which seems to mean transmitting things through the void spoken of in "Army of Ghosts" - the thing that all the Daleks and Cybermen got sucked into. The Doctor seems to be labouring under the misapprehension that Kronos is in there, though. He isn't, you know, Doc. I'm very well acquainted with Kronos - I've been writing fanfiction about him for the last ten years. I'm sure if he was intending to hang about in the void for a bit, he'd have let me know.
No, all right. They're not talking about the Highlander character. But you mention Kronos, and I don't see a Titan eating his sons. I see a wiry little fellow with a sword and a big grin. My Kronos is better than your Kronos, Doc.
Over at TOMTIT HQ, the Master - for 'tis he in charge of this little operation, complete with Greek accent, and bundles of charisma. And no lunacy, and definitely no drums in his head - is being naughty, and Up To No Good. Hooray! The Brig goes off to see TOMTIT demonstrated, whilst the Doctor sits back in his lab, and - fabulously conveniently - builds himself a timey-wimey detector. Of course it goes off, thanks to TOMTIT, so he and Jo dash off after the Brig in a super-speeded-up Bessie. By the time they arrive, the Master is gone and the experiment is malfunctioning dangerously. The Doctor spouts some rubbish about reversing the flippin' polarity - get a new line, Jon - and gets everything stabilised. He's worried that the Master's fiddling, and whatever it is that Kronos is up to, will destroy the "entire created universe". So just the created bits, then? Does that mean that only fundamentalist Christians will be destroyed? He then announces that the crystal that powers TOMTIT has TOMTITted itself, and is actually still in Atlantis, however many years ago. And lo, here is Atlantis, however many years ago. Some bloke runs about in red robes, looking like an extra from the Blake's 7 episode "Sarcophagus"; another one lurks in a corridor, hugging a wall. There is glowing and chanting and weirdness, and could Robert Sloman be a pseudonym of Tanith Lee's?!
That's about it, really. The Brig phones up Mike, and says that he feels naked, so could Mike come round with some men and some big guns, please. Your psyche is a fascinating place, Brig... And things glow some more, and the Master does some more nasty stuff, and the red-robed bloke back in Atlantis gets all excited. And then episode two ends. And it's all been absolutely barmy. Definitely not boring, though. In fact my only real complaint is the Doctor's hair. Whither the bouffant, Jon? Your hair looks positively flat! I expect much bigger hair in future. Much bigger.
The Doctor's dream. Big axes and a giggling Master.
Mike Yates and a thingy.
The Brig and his slightly wonky moustache are unimpressed by talk of dreams.
The gang, discussing TOMTIT.
The Master, being great. With absolutely no drums.
Clearly aware of what this week's plot entails, the Doctor handily chooses today to build a timey-wimey device.
Bessie's super souped-up speed causes Jo to leave her brain behind in the road somewhere.
Benton (that's his hand) gets the drop on the Master. For a bit.
An Atlantean priest. I think. Or a refugee from a Tanith Lee script.
I have no idea. The Michael Praed Fan Club?
More another time. Don't expect it to be any less barking, mind.
We open with a dream sequence. The Doctor sees himself sprawled on a chaise longue, with giant axes standing nearby, and the Master mocking him. He wakes up convinced that something terrible is going to happen, which for some reason leads to Jo and Mike studying maps. Jo chats on about possible locations for Atlantis, which the Doctor has suddenly got a bee in his bonnet about, whilst Mike stands about being as posh and as gay as it's possible to be without turning into Stephen Fry. The Doctor decides that he has to warn the Brigadier about an unknown threat that's probably looming, but the Brig is less than impressed to discover that the Doctor got this warning from a dream. It was a good dream, though, Brig. With explosions and stuff in it. The Brig has other things on his mind, however, as he's been invited to a demonstration of TOMTIT, which as every good Who fan knows, stands for Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time. Which seems to mean transmitting things through the void spoken of in "Army of Ghosts" - the thing that all the Daleks and Cybermen got sucked into. The Doctor seems to be labouring under the misapprehension that Kronos is in there, though. He isn't, you know, Doc. I'm very well acquainted with Kronos - I've been writing fanfiction about him for the last ten years. I'm sure if he was intending to hang about in the void for a bit, he'd have let me know.
No, all right. They're not talking about the Highlander character. But you mention Kronos, and I don't see a Titan eating his sons. I see a wiry little fellow with a sword and a big grin. My Kronos is better than your Kronos, Doc.
Over at TOMTIT HQ, the Master - for 'tis he in charge of this little operation, complete with Greek accent, and bundles of charisma. And no lunacy, and definitely no drums in his head - is being naughty, and Up To No Good. Hooray! The Brig goes off to see TOMTIT demonstrated, whilst the Doctor sits back in his lab, and - fabulously conveniently - builds himself a timey-wimey detector. Of course it goes off, thanks to TOMTIT, so he and Jo dash off after the Brig in a super-speeded-up Bessie. By the time they arrive, the Master is gone and the experiment is malfunctioning dangerously. The Doctor spouts some rubbish about reversing the flippin' polarity - get a new line, Jon - and gets everything stabilised. He's worried that the Master's fiddling, and whatever it is that Kronos is up to, will destroy the "entire created universe". So just the created bits, then? Does that mean that only fundamentalist Christians will be destroyed? He then announces that the crystal that powers TOMTIT has TOMTITted itself, and is actually still in Atlantis, however many years ago. And lo, here is Atlantis, however many years ago. Some bloke runs about in red robes, looking like an extra from the Blake's 7 episode "Sarcophagus"; another one lurks in a corridor, hugging a wall. There is glowing and chanting and weirdness, and could Robert Sloman be a pseudonym of Tanith Lee's?!
That's about it, really. The Brig phones up Mike, and says that he feels naked, so could Mike come round with some men and some big guns, please. Your psyche is a fascinating place, Brig... And things glow some more, and the Master does some more nasty stuff, and the red-robed bloke back in Atlantis gets all excited. And then episode two ends. And it's all been absolutely barmy. Definitely not boring, though. In fact my only real complaint is the Doctor's hair. Whither the bouffant, Jon? Your hair looks positively flat! I expect much bigger hair in future. Much bigger.
The Doctor's dream. Big axes and a giggling Master.
Mike Yates and a thingy.
The Brig and his slightly wonky moustache are unimpressed by talk of dreams.
The gang, discussing TOMTIT.
The Master, being great. With absolutely no drums.
Clearly aware of what this week's plot entails, the Doctor handily chooses today to build a timey-wimey device.
Bessie's super souped-up speed causes Jo to leave her brain behind in the road somewhere.
Benton (that's his hand) gets the drop on the Master. For a bit.
An Atlantean priest. I think. Or a refugee from a Tanith Lee script.
I have no idea. The Michael Praed Fan Club?
More another time. Don't expect it to be any less barking, mind.
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