The story is supposed to follow on directly from the previous one but it feels rather tenuous. Yes, The Doctor is suffering the ill effects of the Master shooting him in the face last week but the Daleks’ plot to divide and conquer seems to have been ignored a bit and replaced with one where they just amass a huge army instead. It’s a fair plan however it seems to have little connection with the 6 episodes of set up that Frontier in Space provided.
That said, it’s nice to see the Thals back and taking on a more proactive role in their feud with the Daleks.
The story does have some decent scripting in places – the scene with the Doctor and the Thal in the prison cell is excellent – a discussion on courage:
“Courage isn’t just a matter of not being frightened you know, it’s being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway.”
Once again though, sadly, we do have quite a bit of padding. And oddly some of the more interesting aspects of the story are not very well explored. We are shown an invisible Dalek, which one assumes would be one helluva weapon, but there is very little use made of them.
The absence of The Master feels a little odd as well. The last episode of “Frontier” was pitched as being a set up for the Mater working with the Daleks but this never actually happens, which is a shame. Yes, they would inevitably have betrayed him but it may have been fun while it lasted.
The reality is that this story has a lot of padding and while I think there’s possibly some nice ideas in there screaming to get out, they are never properly executed.
5/10
That said, it’s nice to see the Thals back and taking on a more proactive role in their feud with the Daleks.
The story does have some decent scripting in places – the scene with the Doctor and the Thal in the prison cell is excellent – a discussion on courage:
“Courage isn’t just a matter of not being frightened you know, it’s being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway.”
Once again though, sadly, we do have quite a bit of padding. And oddly some of the more interesting aspects of the story are not very well explored. We are shown an invisible Dalek, which one assumes would be one helluva weapon, but there is very little use made of them.
The absence of The Master feels a little odd as well. The last episode of “Frontier” was pitched as being a set up for the Mater working with the Daleks but this never actually happens, which is a shame. Yes, they would inevitably have betrayed him but it may have been fun while it lasted.
The reality is that this story has a lot of padding and while I think there’s possibly some nice ideas in there screaming to get out, they are never properly executed.
5/10