Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death: Episode 5 starts as Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) shoots the space-suited alien & saves the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) from it's deadly radioactive touch. With both Taltalian (Robert Cawdron) & Sir James Quinlan (Dallas Cavell) now both dead the Doctor & the Brigadier have no leads so rescuing the astronauts still in orbit becomes even more of a priority, however the bad guys lead by Reegan (William Dysart) are prepared to kill to prevent their discovery & the Doctor finding out the truth...
This Doctor Who adventure was episode 16 from season 7 that aired here in the UK during early 1970, directed by Michael Ferguson this is yet another dip in the action & felt like more padding in particular the big build up to the Doctor heading into space. The script by David Whitaker is starting to sag as it desperately tries to stretch it's basic premise over a mammoth seven episodes while at the same time trying retain the audiences interest by not revealing everything, this works to an extent but I just wish it would move on from the 'everyones got a secret' stage & actually tell it's story. I'm surprised how uninterested both the Doctor & the Brigadier seem towards the kidnapping of Liz & the fact her life has been threatened, it's almost as if they have completely forgotten about her. After a couple of good cliffhanger ending this one is pretty ordinary fare.
While the special effects of the spacecraft have been good the take-off in this episode looks absolutely hilarious & has some awful effects which has spoiled this story as up until now it's been well made with good production values considering the tight BBC budget. The space-suited aliens don't get to do anything during this episode which feels like a wasted opportunity.
The Ambassadors of Death is a good story overall but it's inevitable there are going to be a dip in entertainment value across it's seven episodes at some point.
This Doctor Who adventure was episode 16 from season 7 that aired here in the UK during early 1970, directed by Michael Ferguson this is yet another dip in the action & felt like more padding in particular the big build up to the Doctor heading into space. The script by David Whitaker is starting to sag as it desperately tries to stretch it's basic premise over a mammoth seven episodes while at the same time trying retain the audiences interest by not revealing everything, this works to an extent but I just wish it would move on from the 'everyones got a secret' stage & actually tell it's story. I'm surprised how uninterested both the Doctor & the Brigadier seem towards the kidnapping of Liz & the fact her life has been threatened, it's almost as if they have completely forgotten about her. After a couple of good cliffhanger ending this one is pretty ordinary fare.
While the special effects of the spacecraft have been good the take-off in this episode looks absolutely hilarious & has some awful effects which has spoiled this story as up until now it's been well made with good production values considering the tight BBC budget. The space-suited aliens don't get to do anything during this episode which feels like a wasted opportunity.
The Ambassadors of Death is a good story overall but it's inevitable there are going to be a dip in entertainment value across it's seven episodes at some point.