The forces of different alien powers are gathering. The Guardian of the Solar System is plotting with the Daleks and the Doctor is desperately trying to save Steven’s life.
It’s time for a 12 episode epic across time and space!
Only 3 episodes of this story exist and they are available to watch in iPlayer:
The whole story is available as an audio soundtrack:
Rate and review below:
This is the big one! I’m going to watch it over several sessions throughout the week. I’m not sure exactly how I will watch it, but probably the Loose Cannon reconstruction combined with the BBC soundtrack + the existing episodes.
It’s a long, ridiculous, beautiful, long, emotional, great, companion-killer, long, rehash of the Chase (if a bit too long).
Katarina has a beautiful story The Doctor knows he can’t explain his time travelling ways to Katarina, so he doesn’t disillusion her of her belief that she is passing to the afterlife. But while Katarina couldn’t grasp what was going on around her, she knew exactly what was happening when she chose to sacrifice herself in that airlock. I would love for that episode to be recovered - although it might not live up to mu built up expectations 
Nicholas Courtney is great as companion Bret Vyon. Very distinctly not the Brigadier.
Jean Marsh is fantastic as Sara Kingdom and her death by rapid aging is truly horrifying. More emphasis should have been placed on her relationship with Bret Vyon, it gets a bit glossed over that she killed her own brother.
I really like the whole world-building with the Delegates and the Guardian of the Solar System, and Kevin Stoney plays the crap out of his role. And they even have a small appearance in Doom’s Day 
“The Feast of Steven”, at least the recon I’ve watched, is a bit of a slog. Very few pictures to show what is going on and the episode is so very noisy. Though the bit with the TARDIS landing on the Cricket pitch and the commentators just carrying on and sounding completely disinterested and monotone, I just find that so funny for some reason.
The Monkey business with the… Monk, is a bit superfluous and grinds the story to a halt. And I do feel like it was a case of diminishing returns having the Monk back, but perhaps I would feel differently if I could see the damn thing Having just listened to the “Quadrigger Stoyn” trilogy of Companion Chronicles, there are a lot of similarities between his story with the Doctor and the Monk’s story with the Doctor. I feel like that works much better, but then again it’s its own story and not just a subplot.
But overall I really enjoy the plot and the truly epic scale of the story. Also this aired over three months, I probably spent three days last I saw it 
I wonder how that was received at the time.
I rate this one at 4/5 
This one is a favourite of mine, even with the dodgy recon.
I have mentioned this in other places, but to me this feels like a better, more fleshed out version of The Chase.
Just some quick thoughts before I go to work:
An excellent 4.5/5 (9/10) from me.
I feel like I already said most of what I had to say about it while I was watching it recently.
I do feel Bret gets underappreciated here.
I think the villains are great in this story. In the second half, I think things rather bogged down around “The Feast of Steven”, when the whole episode could’ve been cut down to, say, 3 minutes or so.
I was actually a fan of the Monks return, but not the Egyptians, and felt the section suffered a lot from the footage being missing, since there were a lot of bits where no one was actually saying much.
All in all, if they were totally redoing it, I would say to remove most of the Feast of Steven entirely, and maybe cut out the whole segment with the Monk… and turn it into a separate serial. I wanted the monk, but this serial was already long enough, and would have been more approachable as two serials.
It gets more emphasis in her Companion Chronicles stories. I distinctly remember her going on about it but can’t remember which story it was in. Either the Home Truths trilogy or The Anachronauts.
Watched Parts 1-3 today.
Terry Nation goes all in from the start, and it’s a delightful space opera from the onset.
Bret Vyon is cool. They don’t know what to do with Katarina. Poor Steven gets nothing to do. The Doctor is fierce.
And Mavic Chen is so over-the-top that I love him.
And the Part 3 cliffhanger still brings shivers down my spine. It comes from nowhere and is so horrifying. Poor Katarina!
Oh Daleks’ Master Plan. It’s a really good one. For 5 out of his 6 episodes, it’s Terry Nation at his best. It’s tense, exciting, and there’s a real sense of something big happening, us all being dead if it isn’t stopped. The characters are great, especially Bret, Sara, and Mavic Chen. Sorry Bret, I allow you a seat on the Doctor’s friends’ council, but I don’t grant you the rank of Companion. Sara slides in there because of Big Finish giving you some more stories with the Doctor, but I can’t say the same for Bret. I said 5/6 episodes because I don’t think The Feast of Steven is all that good. It is a filler episode by design, which isn’t inherently a bad thing, but I don’t find the comedy lands and I find it mostly just annoying. This brings us to the Dennis Spooner half, where I find the story takes a turn for the not as good. This is where it becomes Chase 2.0, and while I like it better than that story, Spooner seems to want to take away all of the intensity and make it silly and shoehorn in the Monk and the story loses a lot of momentum. It does pick up again in the last episode, the stuff with the Time Destructor is absolutely brutal, and just a bleak, but excellent ending to the story. I also headcanon that the exposure to the Time Destructor was one of the things that eventually led to the First Doctor’s end, along with what happened to him in The Savages a bit later. 9/10, Spooner holding it back from a 10 for me.
The Time Destructor, the Toymaker, The Savages, the drain from Mondas was just the final straw.
Exactly all that.
Not to mention the terrible toothache he was suffering from in The Gunfighters.
The likely infection from Holliday’s less than sterile conditions and tools.
He probably caught some of that flu virus from The Ark as well!
Is it over bloated? Yes.
Is it twice as long as it should be? Yes.
Did I choose to watch this over Christmas in one sitting rather than spend time with my family? Also yes.
But I love it. It’s so uncharacteristically huge for a 60s episode and really does feel like the Classic’s Era version of event television.
Mavic Chen (minus the unfortunate yellow face) is a great villain and performance and Sara Kingdom is one of the most unfortunately short living (both in terms of in-show and out-show) companions ever.
Really slows down in every episode containing the Monk (who really did not need to be here) but still a monumental and fantastic serial.
8/10
I love the Monk (and desperately need him back for Ncuti), but they should’ve just done another Monk story instead of shoehorning him into this.
If it’s that long but also that good, is it really overly long? I’d argue no. I’d argue that means it generally fills its time well, which I think Master Plan does. Maybe could cut a bit out in the second half.
Oh boi this will be a long one. For me this places second for the Hartnell Years, only beaten slightly by the Massacre, and it’s easily one of my favorite Stories when it comes to Who in general.
It’s a great shame so much of it is missing, especially true with Episode 12, that being said while it does arguably have some flaws, I cannot stop loving it.
Having only really got myself into the Classic Series almost two Years ago, this one was, the one I heard many mixed Things about and while I usually do split up longer Stories (at least at that time), I found myself bored with nothing better to do so I decided to give the Recon a watch. And while yes since the Material to be used was lacking and at times the Recon can be a bit tough to watch, I still have to say this one surprised me.
As many correctly pointed out this was an ambitious Epic, one which the 60s wouldn’t beat, maybe a point could be made about the War Games, but that’s a topic for another Time. Does it really need all those Episodes? I’d argue not, especially Feast of Steven feels like a black sheep and should at this point just be counted as a weird Oddity without much else. That being said the first half is paced incredibly well, at no point did I feel like I watched 5-6 Episodes, they all went by quickly and felt very organic, while yes it is at times slow, it builds tension so very well leading to some breathtakingly good moments such as Katarinas Death
Katarina, while I would have liked to seeing more of her, since I think Hill does give a pretty great performance, having her die here worked really well and the build up to this death feels quite intense. What the Doctor says about her afterward is just beautiful and only one of the many great Moments presented here.
Many compared this one to The Chase, rightfully so since the second half is pretty much in the same vein and while I don’t argue against it, it feels here more earned compared to the Chase. And also gives a great opportunity to have some more Stories with Sara!
And I haven’t mentioned her yet, have I? Jean Marsh is superb as Sara, even through she has only one Story under her Bell (televised at least), she does it all with the Material given to her. Makes it even more a shame that she wouldn’t survive this Story, her death feels also affective and I am quite sad to see that we don’t have that scene in the archives anymore.
One Thing which hasn’t been mentioned here are the Daleks itself and going by their previous appearances, I’d argue they are at some of their best. They have some hilarious lines thrown here, but you always have this feeling of them being treated as a Threat not to be joked with, which the Chase utterly failed. Mavic Chen is a great Villain as well (if we look past the horrendous yellow face), the Actor gives a superb Performance and while not his best Who Performance, it’s easily one of the most memorable for a Villain in the 60s easily.
While the Monk’s Return feels maybe out of the pocket. I’d argue having Butterworth back was not only lovely, but he gets some great moments in here, while yes he gets overshadowed greatly by all the other Stuff happening, I still think he was used pretty well all things considered.
The whole World Building done here is easily my favorite of all of Who, if Nation was good at something, it was with his Ideas of different Worlds, shown pretty well here. The Council or even the Planet of Kembel itself are just superb.
Oh there is a lot to talk about, surprisingly Hartnell and Purves himself weren’t mentioned here too much. I do say they both give some of their best in this Story. Hartnell especially has so many little wonderful moments or acting choices, makes it even more saddening knowing that his physical performance might be for the most part lost to time. Purves I feel like gets to show off how great Steven can be, while he was superb in the Time Meddler, I feel like his last two Stories used the Character pretty underwhelming (although I liked a few bits with him in Myth Makers), this one does not. I love especially his confrontational nature around the End, pointing out to the Doctor that they haven’t really won after all the Deaths.
Bret is great, I like him! What is more to say, everybody likes Bret, that’s all
The Story overall ranks very highly for me. While it’s huge, it does know how it paces itself and I’d argue even through I really didn’t care for Feast, at no Episodes did I feel bored about this Story. It builds up a lot of tension and uses it quite well in my opinion, the first half as I said is paced superb. The second half, while not as superb, still offers some fun to be had and basically does the travelling to place to place much better. The bleak Tone and the bleak ending is wonderful, and there are a lot of little Parts I adore.
I do think this Story deserves the Animation Treatment and I really hope we can that, while the likelihood of it happening is low due the scale of it all, perhaps some day they decide to do two different releases for that Story, similarly as how they have done it with the Target Novel. But who knows, only Time will tell.
Personally? Big fan if you didn’t notice it already, lots of great Stuff to love here!
I finished this today, and yeah, it still holds up as one of Hartnell’s best.
It’s a bit too long and there are tonal inconsistencies, and most of it being lissing means that it duffers a little.
But it makes up for this with great characters, good or evil, many evocative settings and that intense final episode, which includes the brilliantly dark and depressing ending, with Sara Kingdom aged to death.
Mavic Chen is a conniving bugger, and I had forgotten how much I enjoy Karlton as his slimy right-hand man.
And the Monk! Unnecessary but very enjoyable, and I liked the little sidestep to Ancient Egypt (why haven’t we seen that era returned in the TV show?).
Dark, epic, wonderful brilliance!
9/10
(The review is very long, so read it if you have spare time!)