Doctor Who (TV Series) Timelash: Part Two (1985) User Reviews

Part 2 is an improvement.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 5/10 · 22 September 2015]

The Doctor manages to push the Android into the Timelash and the rebels overpower the guards. The Doctor tampers with the Timelash, and using elements he's stolen from it, creates a device that allows him to time slip by 10 seconds. Peri is used to lure the Doctor out, and is once again tied up and set upon by the rubber monster. The Borad is shown to be a monstrous looking humanoid, an accident resulting in his appearance. He and the Doctor had met before, he explains that he plans to mate with Peri, after experimenting on her. The Doctor uses his device and tricks the Borad, but the Bandril launch an attack.

Something a little kinky about the way Perry is dragged to the Borad by the neck. I wonder who's benefit that was for.

Oh dear, the set are dire once again, clearly they had no budget, the poor things even had to use tinsel to decorate the inside of the Timelash. Greyness and dullness are abundant. HG Wells, is actually quite fun, he plays off the Doctor rather well

Favourite bits, the uncovering of the panel on the wall, showing a picture of the third Doctor and Jo Grant, and when the Borad bumps off Tekker (If only he'd done it sooner!!) The Borad side on doesn't look too bad, quite well designed.

I think Part 2 is an improvement on the opener,it's the awful production values that are the major problem, as a story I don't think it deserves it's place as one of the worst, there are definitely worse episodes, The Twin Dilemma, Underworld and Fear her.

Had there been more funds I'm sure it would have been better thought of.

Part 2, 5/10

Not as bad as people say

[dalekprimelol · 6/10 · 9 July 2022]

I watched this for the first time on the season 22 collection box set with optional cgi replacements on. And I think when watching it like that this story is actually alright! I think the robots are cool the board design is fantastic! The stuff with HG wells is also very good, the callbacks to an unseen adventure with the third doctor and jo is also very good and the crystals that you can use to jump 10 seconds is a very good idea! So yeah overall I would say a pretty alright story.

Time Trash

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 3/10 · 15 December 2018]

Review of parts 1 & 2:

One of the worst Doctor Who TV stories. This has very few plus points - a couple of decent moments and a bit of campy fun here and there - but is basically pretty lame in every respect.

The story is that a society on the planet Karfel which we are told was visited and saved once by the 3rd Doctor (although this was not from any existing story just an added plot point) is ruled over by a dictator known as the Borad who has become a mutated monster after an experiment which went wrong so hides his appearance by having an android of an old man as his public face. The world is at war with an alien race called the Bandrils and the Karfel official Maylin Tekker is throwing anyone in the way of his and the Borad's evil plans into the Timelash which loses them in a time tunnel which leads to Earth history. When The Doctor travels through this time tunnel he also meets real life historical figure H.G. Wells as a young man and is therefore shown to influence Wells' science fiction writing.

Acting wise Colin Baker is fine but the 6th Doctor is showing the same argumentative, pompous and patriarchal behaviour that he showed in his first story (equally poor The Twin Dilemma) and not having an endearing Doctor is a big minus. Peri is as annoying and unsatisfactorily portrayed as usual and Herbert (young H.G. Wells) is not awful but pretty unimpressive. Paul Darrow is over the top camp as the Maylin but is fun and a highlight among all the other Karfelons who are almost entirely dull and wooden. Denis Carey is a magnificent actor as proved in his role in Shada but in Timelash he is completely wasted. Robert Ashby puts in a perfectly decent performance as the Borad but delivers cliched villainous dialogue.

The dialogue in general is very underwhelming and includes unnecessary meanness and grating superior attitude from The Doctor, particularly towards Peri. The sets and costumes are cheap looking and cheesy, the Morlox are pathetic rubber creatures and many effects look bad. The makeup of the Borad is OK but that is the only thing that looks sufficiently good quality. The Timelash itself is an embarrassing arrangement of tinsel and the Bandrils are equally embarrassing silly puppets.

The plot development is equally silly with most of the whole story making little sense and culminating in a dreadful twist as the Borad is ludicrously and inexplicably revealed to have not only had an android old man as a front but also a cloned version of himself with the same disfigured features who was able to engage in the full confrontation with the Doctor only to turn out to be 'not the real Borad'! Then he is defeated and pushed towards the Timelash simply by showing him a mirror despite him proclaiming his form as a wonderful improvement which he intends duplicating in an entire race - an odd choice if he finds it so unbearable to see! It all really beggars belief and is the worst revelation in Doctor Who history as well as the most pathetic defeat of a villain! How anyone can rate this as OK and harshly criticise the relatively miniscule flaws in plots or 'too easy' defeats of villains in new episodes grading them with lower scores than this nonsense is beyond my understanding. This is surely one of the bottom 3 Doctor Who TV stories if not the worst.

Part 1 - 3.5/10, Part 2 - 3/10

"If you were to die I don't think anyone would notice the difference." Hasn't got any better.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 21 July 2007]

Doctor Who: Timelash: Part 2 starts with the Doctor (Colin Baker) saving himself & all of Borad's (Robert Ashby) prisoners who are about to be thrown into the Timelash & defeating the 'might' of Borad's guards with an ordinary household hand mirror, never leave home without one... Peri (Nicola Bryant) is tied up about to be attacked by a Morlox monster so the Doctor makes his way to see Borad personally & have it out, meanwhile the Brandils have launched a missile which will kill every living thing on Karfel. The Doctor is now in a race against time to stop Borad, save Peri & save the Karfel from being destroyed...

Episode 11 from season 22 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during March 1985 & was the fifth story in Colin Baker's first full season as the Doctor & his sixth overall, directed by Pennant Roberts this was a pretty poor final Part 2 to a pretty poor story. The script by Glen McCoy has been downright awful, the science techno babble has been truly terrible & even worse than usual with the whole going forward 10 seconds in time thing coming off as an absolute mess, the dialogue has been frankly awful with some really bad lines & that unpleasant relationship between the Doctor & Peri just annoys me while there are also a few plot holes here. For instance why did everyone think the TARDIS had been destroyed when it hadn't & why did the Doctor just say 'I'll explain it later' when he reappeared? Were the writers really that lazy? Doctor Who has now explained the Loch Ness twice with the Tom Baker story Terror of the Zygons (1975) & now Timelash although both are completely different. If Borad was such a great scientist who could bring about the destruction of an entire planet & fool it's inhabitants to letting him rule it in the first place why was he so scared of his own reflection? Would seeing himself in a mirror really send him to pieces? It's a crap way to dispose of the villain & again smacks of really poor writing. Then there's the opening to this episode as the Doctor uses a hand mirror to defeat Borad's guards, OK so Borad doesn't like his own reflection but why would the guards be affected in the same way? There are quite a few obvious H.G. Wells references in Timelash, the Karfel/Bandril war has War of the Worlds written all over it, The Invisible Man is alluded to when the Doctor makes himself invisible while the TARDIS takes care of The Time Machine & The Island of Dr. Moreau parallels the half man half creature experiments carried out by Borad. Basically Timelash is a mess both conceptually & technically, not the greatest way to spend 45 minutes I'm afraid & worst of all it's just not any fun..

This looks really poor, I know Doctor Who does in general but Timelash really is tawdry cheap lifeless stuff. Most of the actor's just stand there like statues & do virtually nothing, the sets are terrible & an entire alien civilisation is represented by two rooms & a corridor, the blue face ridiculous looking android sounded like he swallowed some helium before his lines, the Karfelon guards look like bee keepers with silly hats & nets that go over their heads while the Morlox monster never seems to attack Peri as it just stands in front of her for what seems like ages & it looks rubbish as well. The optical special effects & model ships & missiles also look terrible, it's no wonder it was around this time the BBC canned it for a year. This is just bad all the way & it's hard to keep defending the show, I'm a fan but this silly, comedic space pantomime with horrible direction & acting isn't what I want to see.

Timelash: Part 2 is maybe even worse than Timelash: Part 1, overall I'll give Timelash a lowly 3 stars out of 10 across it's two episodes & that's almost entirely down to Peri.

One of the best Dr. Who stories!

[sarastro7 · 8/10 · 4 July 2010]

I utterly disagree with the previous user comment. The general dislike for this Dr. Who story among Dr. Who fans demonstrates that I am wryly and verily not a part of the cult audience. Since 2006 I have been watching all of the old series, and I think Timelash is among the best stories of them all - worthy of an 8 out of 10. But then, many of the other episodes (incl. the ones very well liked by the cult audience) usually get a 3 or 4 rating from me.

What's good about Timelash is that it's got plenty of substance and fun. We have H.G. Wells, and a wealth of references to Wells stories! War of the Worlds, the Invisible Man, the Time Machine, Island of Dr. Moreau...! I fail to understand how anybody can fail to find this story thoroughly delightful! AND it's got Paul Darrow acting much better than he did on Blake's 7! This is a memorable and fun couple of episodes. The story's also got problems, of course, which is why it doesn't rate a 10 out of 10, but to my mind it's ridiculous and demonstrates very poor taste to rate it a measly 3, 4 or 5 out of 10. Shame on you, cult audience!