Doctor Who, Season Six

 

The third and final leg of my run through Troughton's era was certainly an interesting one. This is a real rollercoaster of a season, with three of the best stories the show has ever made, three total duds, and one story that's middle-of-the-road good. This has made it a little difficult to judge the season as a whole. There are a number of things which have mitigated those poor episodes, though. For one thing, I don't think I've seen a TARDIS team that's so comfortable together since Ian and Barbara left. The Troughton-Frazer-Wendy trifecta is familiar, warm, and always entertaining to watch, even in episodes that are otherwise dull.

We said goodbye to Jamie at the end of this season, after what feels like a very long time. And it is! Three seasons is far and away the longest tenure any companion has had, and he's come to define this era almost as much as the Second Doctor has. Zoe unfortunately feels like a bit of an outsider now and then to the strong friendship between the Doctor and Jamie, but mostly only towards the beginning of the season. I'll really miss this dynamic.

We had a somewhat worrying start with The Dominators, a story plagued by strife between the writers and the production team. It shows, unfortunately, but despite undoubtedly being a weak story, it's not exactly boring. In fact, boring is pretty much the last descriptor I'd use for this thing... Just make sure to enjoy it while sloshed, it'll improve the experience.

There was whiplash when The Mind Robber came along. I didn't exactly dampen my praise with this one. It's strange, whimsical, sometimes a bit scary, but all around brilliant. Almost certainly one of the very best the show has ever done.

Things stayed extremely strong with The Invasion, despite the vast tonal and writing differences between it and the previous serial. I felt like this was the best proof of concept for the upcoming UNIT era that we could have asked for. As far as an expression of confidence in the new format goes, it was convincing!

The Krotons obviously failed to impress me to the same degree, or at all really. I was bemused that such a mediocre outing could have been the first contribution of Robert Holmes, but everyone has to start somewhere. There were some fun moments, as well as a nice performance from Philip Madoc that I forgot to mention.

We revisited the Ice Warriors in The Seeds of Death. I thought that this was a big improvement on Brian Hayles' previous scripts, and was further elevated by some excellent guest performers and those neat scenes of the T-Mat compound getting attacked by Ice Warriors. All around, a fairly solid one.

Our last missing episodes came and went with The Space Pirates, a story so bizarrely devoid of incident (and acting) that it almost anesthetized me completely. It wasn't all bad, but certainly isn't going into my regular rewatch rotation.

Last but certainly not least, the dark epic of The War Games gave this era a salute (with guns) to see it off. Check the last post for some more prosaic commentary!

Here's the score breakdown:​

The Dominators - 4.80
Episode One - 6.00
Episode Two - 5.00
Episode Three - 4.00
Episode Four - 4.00
Episode Five - 5.00

The Mind Robber - 10.00
Episode One - 10.00
Episode Two - 10.00
Episode Three - 10.00
Episode Four - 10.00
Episode Five - 10.00

The Invasion - 9.50
Episode One - 10.00
Episode Two - 10.00
Episode Three - 10.00
Episode Four - 9.00
Episode Five - 9.00
Episode Six - 10.00
Episode Seven - 8.00
Episode Eight - 10.00

The Krotons - 5.25
Episode One - 6.00
Episode Two - 5.00
Episode Three - 5.00
Episode Four - 5.00

The Seeds of Death - 7.67
Episode One - 8.00
Episode Two - 7.00
Episode Three - 7.00
Episode Four - 7.00
Episode Five - 8.00
Episode Six - 9.00

The Space Pirates - 5.33
Episode One - 5.00
Episode Two - 6.00
Episode Three - 5.00
Episode Four - 6.00
Episode Five - 6.00
Episode Six - 4.00

The War Games - 9.00
Episode One - 9.00
Episode Two - 10.00
Episode Three - 9.00
Episode Four - 9.00
Episode Five - 9.00
Episode Six - 8.00
Episode Seven - 8.00
Episode Eight - 8.00
Episode Nine - 10.00
Episode Ten - 10.00

Best episode: The Mind Robber, Episode One - 10.00
Runner-up: The War Games, Episode Ten - 10.00
Worst episode: The Dominators, Episode Three - 4.00

Season Six average: 7.70

Best guest performance: Philip Madoc as the War Lord (The War Games) but honorable mentions go to Kevin Stoney in The Invasion.
Best special effect: The TARDIS falling to pieces (The Mind Robber)
Best musical score: The Invasion (Don Harper)

It's not going to be a very long time before our next season wrap-up post, is it? But just the same, this is the last that is going to be put in this thread. Our 1969 music post and our overall Troughton wrap-up will be coming up first.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 19 March 2021.)