Doctor Who: Time-Flight - Episode 123
Starring: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet FieldingDirector: Ron Jones
Studio: BBC Warner
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release: November 6th 2007
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DVD Review
Time-Flight is the four-episode serial that concluded Peter Davison's first season as the fifth Doctor. Arriving at Heathrow Airport with companions Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Tegan (Janet Fielding), still grieving after the death of Adric in "Earthshock" (1982), the Doctor is soon involved in solving the mystery of a Concorde that has literally vanished into thin air. Tracing the lost plane's flight path in a second Concorde, the travelers find themselves flying through a hole in time into the prehistoric past. Here the Master (Anthony Ainley), under the rather camp persona of Kalid (which strangely he maintains even when alone), is planning to harness the power of the currently disembodied alien Xeraphin, who are stranded on Earth. Echoing both the classic 1960 Twilight Zone episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33" and prefiguring Stephen King's chilling The Langoliers (1990), at heart Time-Flight is a reworking of the superior Tom Baker Doctor Who story "City of Death" (1979). Ending on a minor cliffhanger, what makes the story really distinctive is that it was the first drama of any sort to be given permission to film in and around a genuine Concorde. --Gary S. Dalkin
User Reviews
Much needed story - Rating: 5/5
I wanted to be the first to review this story, to give it a good start before all the negative reviews start filtering in. I fully well realize that this story is not appreciated by "fandom". Take it for what it is. A light-hearted, fun way to end the season, after the death of a companion in the emotionally heart-wrenching, watershed story that preceded it, Earthshock. Not to knock Earthshock, as it is also a five-star story.
Keeping the basic premise of Doctor Who, Time-Flight involves ... well ... time travel. A concorde is hijacked and teleported roughly about 140 million years into the past by Kalid, who is later revealed to be the Master. Incidentally, in order to keep the Master a secret from the audience in episode one, the credits list the actor playing Kalid as Leon Ny Taiy, an acronym of Tony Ainley. Clever. I don't think I'm spoiling it for anyone, as most of you reading the review already know the Master is the main villain in the story.
It's interesting to note, too, that Kalid sounds like an Arabic name. I wonder if this is the production team's shot at all the airline hijackings pulled off by Islamic terrorists in the 70s and early 80s. The concorde, for all intents and purposes, is hijacked, to a place full of sand, caves, and more sand and caves. Almost like... the middle east? Too political you say. Consider that the companion Leela, a knife-wielding savage (appropriate!) was named after Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled, and you'll see that this wouldn't be the first time Doctor Who has gone in that direction. Wait a minute!!! This is too intriguing too pass up. Kalid...Khaled!!! I don't think we can dismiss the similarity of the names as merely a coincidence.
Ok, so maybe I went somewhere I shouldn't have, but you gotta admit it is suspicious. Back to the story, it is a welcome relief after being dragged through the emotional wringer by Earthshock. After all, isn't that the original intention of Doctor Who? Light-hearted entertainment.
Doctor Who Time Flight - Rating: 5/5
This movie was great. If you like Dr. Who, this is a good one. The ending leaves you hanging a little but that just makes you want to buy the next one. The only catch is that it can take a while in getting this video after you order it because it's usually out of stock. I ordered it for Father's day and didn't receive it until months later.
Season 19 ends on a bit of a rum story - Rating: 3/5
Following Adric's death from the previous story, the Doctor decides to cheer Nyssa and Tegan by taking them to the Great London Exhibition of 1851, but something draws the TARDIS off course, forcing them to...of all places, Heathrow Airport in contemporary England, where Tegan wanted to return (q.v. The Visitation.) After using his UNIT credentials to get them out of trouble with airport security, he is then drawn into the strange disappearance of a Concorde Jet over the British Channel. To that end, he enlists the use of another Concorde to retrace the path of its twin. "The question is where but when" the plane has vanished, as he equates it with the TARDIS trouble they had earlier. The pilot, Captain Stapley, turns out to be a reliable and solid fellow throughout the adventure.
They find the answer in the Jurassic Period, which is where the time contour that hijacked them ends. The crew and passengers of the other flight are under some hypnotic influence, all that is except for a Professor Hayter, a university scientist specializing in hypnotism who was unaffected. He thinks that the plane was hijacked by the Soviets and that they are behind the iron curtain.
The sight of a crashed spaceship, a citadel, and a grotesque-looking Oriental magician named Kalid, leads the travellers to believe there's more to their predicament.
Nyssa plays a larger role by acting as a medium for some aliens divided into good and evil halves, and there's a kind of sixth sense about her, which may come from her being from Traken. And at least Tegan finally gets to be a stewardess, having worn her uniform all throughout the season.
I can't tell more without spoiling the rest. Paleontology seems to be a weak case in Doctor Who (q.v. The Silurians, The Sea Devils). 140 million years ago is indeed the close of the Jurassic Period, but then the Doctor says they must be near the Pleistocene Era. Two goofs: he must have meant the Cretaceous Era, and second, it should be the Pleistocene Epoch, which wouldn't occur for another 138 million years after.
Some credit should be given to British Airways giving producer John Nathan-Turner permission to feature the Concorde and airport authorities giving him the go-ahead to film at Heathrow.
Occasionally, the series has some stories that don't cut the mustard, and sadly, Timeflight is one of them. The regulars come out good as usual, with worthy performances from Richard Easton (Stapley) and Nigel Stock (Hayter). The main problem, though, is the concept of two Concordes being hijacked to the end of the Jurassic Period and the bad story idea and execution.
Watchable, but nothing special - Rating: 3/5
The Doctor and his assistants track a Concorde which has been transported back to prehistoric times. This is a story which is quite watchable, but ultimately isn't anything to write home about. The story has an interesting central idea, there are some haunting moments of halucinations and feeling oppressed by a stark wilderness, and the scenes at the airport have an almost documentary-like feel to them. But the whole thing is let down by a lack of explanations later on. What exactly is the Master trying to do? And why does he need a disguise when nobody is actually there to see him anyway? Overall this is worth watching, but has no real replay value.
Forgettable - Rating: 2/5
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Lately I've tried very hard to enjoy the Peter Davison era of Doctor Who. I remember liking the flashy, stylized look when I was very young, I had no qualms with Peter Davison's Doctor or Anthony Ainley's Master, and to this day I still like Nyssa and even Tegan (to a point). But 'Time-Flight' is one of the many Davison era stories that has not stood the test of time well at all. The Doctor and crew investigate the mystery of a missing Concorde jet and find a devious plot is afoot. An excuse to film some shots at Heathrow Airport, the acting in this outing is mediocre, the story plodding and uncompelling and the visual effects and sets are too pathetic to ignore this time.
The strain of having filmed an entire season of the show before this finale is obvious as the main cast rather feebly o through the motions. References to the death of Adric are a nice touch, but cannot distract the viewer from the unexciting tasks the various characters get to perform. The guest cast fare no better, with the faceless airline crew and passengers suffering from lifeless writing as well as mediocre acting, and Ainley's Master has quite a few absurd scenes and scenery to chew embarrassingly.
The Plasmatons are unusually laughable monsters, looking like unmenacing masses of plastic sandwich bags that get to lumber and sometimes hover over Sarah Sutton. The model FX of the Concorde blend unsuccessfully with stock footage of the real McCoy, but they complement the shoestring budget wasteland sets perfectly (obviously there wasn't even money to go to a quarry this time). There are a few points of merit in the look of the 4 episodes - the early location filming at Heathrow is very good, as is much of the footage actually shot on the Concorde (which makes the transition to the studios all the more jarring). The cliffhanger ending is unexpected if odd.
Overall it's really hard to recommend 'Time-Flight' even to a die-hard Who fan. The writing is sloppy and dull, the story is highly prolonged and padded, the acting is unremarkable and location filming aside, the production values are easily the worst of the season. As a Doctor Who story 'Time-Flight' disappoints, as a season finale it does little to get the viewer wanting more, thank goodness most of the other stories from season 19 are far more interesting.
