Season Fifteen is probably Tom Baker’s weakest
The short answer to the previous question is ‘no’. After the false dawn of the immensely watchable ‘Horror of Fang Rock’, in which Tom Baker is clearly in a bad mood (it was filmed in Birmingham, keeping the actor away from his favoured drinking haunts in Soho and Fitzrovia), it’s rapidly and jarringly downhill. There is another high point in ‘Image of the Fendahl’, which plays to all of the show’s strengths: dodgy mad scientists, Gothic horror, a creepy remote mansion… It also marks the first of Denis Lill’s two appearances in ‘Doctor Who’, filmed contemporaneously with his impressive lead role in Terry Nation’s ‘Survivors’. What’s not to love? The four stories either side of these classics are an absolute mess. ‘The Invisible Enemy’ is the first seriously weak story of Tom Baker’s era. The scene in which the Doctor confronts the Nucleus inside his own body, and stands in an undressed set whilst a black blob waves a tentacle at him is simply embarrassing. How is it even the same show that had less than a year earlier delivered ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’? Astonishingly, the season would go from bad to worse. The unbelievably cheap production values on ‘The Sun Makers’ render it a chore to watch. Viewers are treated to undressed flats making up the dreary sets. Robert Holmes’ leaden satire, made at a time of sky-high taxes in the UK, is one joke stretched beyond its capacity to sustain any interest. It should never have seen the light of day. Tom Baker’s ludicrous performance at the episode cliffhanger where he is trapped inside a perspex booth is the first time he sends up the show, and it jars. Is this really the same actor who gave us seasons twelve to fourteen? The next ten episodes are no better. ‘Underworld’ is as painfully dull as ‘Doctor Who’ ever became. By the final episode, it’s impossible to care about the quest. Viewers just want to see the last of endlessly bad CSO. Worst of all is the season finale, ‘The Invasion of Time’. Gallifrey certainly looks a lot cheaper than it had during ‘The Deadly Assassin’. A derelict hospital doubling for the interior of the TARDIS is as preposterous a money-saving notion as the show ever conjured. The threat from billowing tin foil (yes, really) and then ineffectual Cockney Sontarans is painful to behold. The weak script, horribly stretched over six episodes, is surely the low point of Baker’s era, and his shouty performance fails to liven things up. The only plus is that easily the worst companion Leela leaves. She was a character writers found it difficult to provide good material for, and an inauthentic performance doesn’t help. Things can only get better. And thankfully, they do!
