When it’s bad, it’s really, really bad
The slow start in the first two stories is compounded by the pretty but inconsequential ‘Black Orchid’ and the execrably bad ‘Time-Flight’, which is probably the weakest story in the show’s entire history up until this point. Monsters that look like oversized bowel movements and a bizarre (and what would now be considered racist) performance by Anthony Ainley’s Master add to the unintentional hilarity. After the mess of ‘K9 and Company’, the failed spin-off, it’s astounding that producer and director Terence Dudley was allowed to submit further scripts. Yes, ‘Four to Doomsday’ was one of his, and his anti-dramatic writing was also behind Dudley duds ‘Black Orchid’ and ‘The King’s Demons’. All four of his ‘Doctor Who’ scripts are plodding and poor. Thankfully he would not return after the Davison era.
