The King’s Demons: This is okay. The Doctor is a little more lively, the medieval setting is well-realised, Anthony Ainley is fun to watch as usual. There are some interesting scenes, like the swordfight at the end of part one and the various confrontations between the Doctor and the Master. On the negative side, the Master’s plan is one of his silliest yet (and not in a fun way), Tegan still looks like she’d rather be anywhere else, Turlough is still a bit OTT and undefined as a character. The scene at the end where the Doctor threatens to take Tegan home comes out of nowhere. Two and a half stars, some good parts, some bad parts.
And also Kamelion is there too.
Important details.
I was going to reply and say he might as well not have been for all the impact he has, but I suppose his presence does facilitate the TARDIS team’s escape at the end, even if it just amounts to them grabbing him and leaving. We don’t really learn much about him here though, and I don’t recall him appearing in any of the serials I’ve seen after this from season 21. Is Planet of Fire his only other appearance?
Yep.
He was cut out of The Awakening due to it overrunning.
Yep. He was due to appear in more stories but fate had other ideas. There is a deleted scene from The Awakening. It’s a shame because the EU did some interesting things with him. I particular like his appearance in the Missing Adventure The Crystal Bucephalus.
The disdain towards him from Tegan 
She should have poured some Castlemaine XXXX down his USB port!
The Robots of Death with commentary by Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Pamela Salem & Michael E. Briant (director).
I finished “The Abominable Snowmen” (the animated version). I found it interesting at first and then the quality dropped quickly, it picked up a bit later but honestly it felt quite mediocre to me. 6/10
Watched the rebel flesh and the almost people last night and I’m tackling a good man goes to war today :)
Frontios: I rather like this one, especially in comparison to the last few serials I’ve watched from season 20, because there’s a certain wit and levity here that I don’t think was present in those stories. There’s no better demonstration than the night-and-day difference in our regulars, on both the writing and acting fronts. Rather than being generally bland and grumpy, Peter Davison gets to be impish, curious, tricksy, and righteous. Janet Fielding is allowed to take part in the action and look like she’s having a good time. Mark Strickson does more to sell me on Turlough as a character in a single line reading here (“the doomed planet Earth…”) than he did in the entirety of his screentime in season 20, and he too gets to play a variety of emotions and scenarios. Christopher Bidmead has also upped his game - whereas Logopolis seemed to be a story that struggled with the character writing in comparison with the sci-fi, here the two elements are much more well-balanced, and Bidmead offers us an intriguing world and compelling characters to fill it with. The set design and costumes are great too, and I like the sort of pseudo-medieval soundtrack (as if to emphasise the fact that, for all the sci-fi trappings here, the people of Frontios might as well be from the dark ages, with all their superstitions, their lack of scientific knowledge, and the fact they are in effect subject to an absolute monarchy). The only real weak link is the Tractators themselves - the costumes look alright standing still, but they definitely lose a lot of their power when in motion or when they’re well-lit. On the whole though, I think this is a big improvement on Terminus, Enlightenment and The King’s Demons.
Only one more Davison to go (Planet of Fire), then one last story each for Colin (The Twin Dilemma) and Sylvester (Survival). I’ll probably rewatch Androzani between Planet of Fire and The Twin Dilemma, and I might rewatch some of Colin and Sylvester’s other stories, but regardless I’m getting very close to the end now.
In a real 4th Docco mood recently. Time for State of Decay plus Commentary #2 with Lalla Ward and Rachel Davies. Moderated by Matthew Sweet.
Commentary is gold!
Matthew Sweet: “So we are looking here I think at Matthew Waterhouse’s first ever scene in Dr Who. An inexperienced actor. So, were you trying to help him out?”
Lalla Ward: (abruptly) “No.”
Yep. From what we know of him up to that point, I don’t believe him when he says it was a ruse. All I see is a lie to save face when his vampires lost.
FINALLY FINISHED SEASON 5!!! CAN’T WAIT FOR SEASON 6 
Planet of Fire: Man, poor Peri really gets put through the wringer from minute one, doesn’t she? In the space of this one story, she’s tricked by her stepfather, almost drowns, gets kidnapped by the Master, gets lost on the volcanic surface of Sarn, and then gets kidnapped by the Master again! Nicola Bryant does a good job making her feel distinct from previous companions, and I like what we get of her background here. This is really a good showing for all the companions, actually - we finally get Turlough’s backstory, with some good demonstrations of how he’s grown as a character since his introduction, and Kamelion obviously plays a key role here too. Anthony Ainley is as reliably entertaining as ever (I particularly love the little Tom and Jerry sequence he has with Peri in part 4, even if it is ruined by her losing him because of a spontaneous sneezing fit), although Peter Davison is slightly back in “grumpy Doctor mode” which is a shame. Away from the characters, the central plot is fun if predictable, and Lanzarote makes for an exciting departure from the usual filming locations on the series. On the whole, a solid penultimate outing for the Fifth Doctor, although the real highlight is Mark Strickson’s shorts!
I watched Revolution of the Daleks which finally means Vampire Weekend here I come!
Also I’m so sad Ryan’s leaving I loved Ryan I still love Ryan he’s my boy man. I’ve always thought he had such delicate character development. Seeing a neurodivergent male character that feels lost in the endless sea of life, who throughout learns to find himself and what he wants, managing to grow in confidence, but not the sort of you’ve got to be tough and brave and all that sort of confidence that many unappealing pieces of media from my youth gave to male characters, but how he’s able to find the confidence to be there for other people, it’s everything to me. And here how he’s able to be there for the Doctor when she needs it. He’s been learning to stand up for himself, and even after the Doctor’s prickly side has come out, he’s become confident enough to, on his own, still have that conversation with her. I just think it’s so important to have male characters like this, whose ‘character arc’ isn’t about some hypermasculine ideals of ‘self improvement’.
And that last scene man… He still falls, but now he gets back up. And who knows, that bicycle may never be conquered. But now there’s something different, in how he talks with Graham, in how he believes in what he can do. Because his dyspraxia will always hold him back, but it won’t hold him back, if you get what I mean. It’s an unimaginably far cry from any companion ‘arc’ I’ve seen from this show in its past 20 something years. It’s so small, and so careful, but it’s so important. I love Ryan. Ryan is my goat man.
Also this episode is just so much fun man, all these loose bits from previous things clicking together, the character drama for Yaz and the Doctor, the political satire, the “96 billion light years away” and “368 minutes later”, the how everyone who dies for some reason needs to get backstory about how they love their family like wtf is wrong with you Chris Chibnall. I’m shocked at the score I tell you. Shocked. Every time I watch an episode from this era I think “Oh, so then surely it’s this one that was the more well received one, because that was great!” And then it isn’t lol.