Love and Liberty

At last, the Doctor is free, so every story in 1973 is back to travels in time and space: alien worlds, medieval England and even the series’ own past as William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton return for The Three Doctors. Then UNIT goes somewhere excitingly new for The Green Death… Wales! At the very end of the year, The Time Warrior introduces Sarah Jane Smith and the Sontarans, but before then Doctor Who climbs inside the TV itself:

Carnival of Monsters

“One has no wish to be devoured by alien monstrosities, Kalik – even in the cause of political progress.”

An entertaining satire of television, with quite a bit of politics and characters including a dodgy Polari-speaking showman (I remember not understanding him; I can now) and grey-faced plotting Tories, the story keeps channel-hopping to 1926 British caricatures and huge, screaming dragons, the Drashigs. Bona!


One to buy on DVD, though it’s worth looking out for the excellent book and, for once, the VHS as well. The video has extended episodes with extra scenes cut in, which are presented separately on the DVD (it’s a shame the tape’s one of the few copy-protected ones, so I can’t back up our old copy of these edits). Terrance Dicks’ novelisation swaps scenes around too, and adds lots of little polishes; it’s clearer, if less vivid, and uses the word “liberal” to mean good and “authoritarian” bad, so it’s appealed to me from a very young age, along with the memorable tagline on the back:

“The Doctor and Jo land on a cargo ship crossing the Indian Ocean in the year 1926.
“Or so they think.”

Labels: Books, British Politics, Comedy, Doctor Who, DVD, Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton, Reviews, Sarah Jane Smith, Why Is Doctor Who Brilliant?, William Hartnell